Coding is ‘valuable tool’ to tackle poor roads-based design

14 June 2006

Using 3D ‘design codes’ to specify the form large-scale new developments should take can help overcome ‘undesirable roads-dominated solutions,’ according to the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The DCLG said in a report that the process of design coding – allowing local planning authorities or English Partnerships to specify the layout and materials, and even the colour of buildings and streets – were a ‘valuable tool’ for improving design. They brought most benefits to large sites or sites in multiple ownership by providing coherence. But design codes – piloted for seven developments of 260-4,500 dwellings – needed to be supported by ‘enlightened highways authorities’ and developers committed to quality, in order to succeed.
The evaluation, published on the DCLG’s website, highlighted how design codes had influenced street design, and even specified road surface materials, type of traffic calming, street furniture, and how to accommodate parking.
Baroness Andrews, the Lords planning minister, challenged councils ‘to take these new approaches on board, and to make sure that bad design is a thing of the past’.
Erika Davies, regeneration manager at English Partnerships, which used design coding on the Upton urban extension of Northampton, said that ‘generally, county highways officers have been supportive’. The process had avoided ‘a mass of blacktop everywhere’.

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Coding is ‘valuable tool’ to tackle poor roads-based design

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