Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community Masterplan
Landscape framework for a major new 21st Century Garden Community
Colchester, UK
Gillespies, in a team led by masterplanners Prior + Partners, supported a cross-authority approach to preparing a Strategic Masterplan and Design Guidance Development Plan Document (DPD) for a new community of 7,500 homes.
A landscape-led vision for a new garden community in Essex
Gillespies played a key role in shaping the landscape design and green infrastructure strategy for Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community, a proposed new settlement of over 800 hectares, led by Tendring District Council, Colchester City Council and Essex County Council. This ambitious garden community project represents a collaborative cross-authority effort to deliver sustainable housing and green infrastructure to meet the region’s long-term growth needs.
Working alongside masterplanners Prior + Partners, we supported the development of an initial vision, strategic design principles and masterplan options, before developing a Strategic Masterplan Framework and Design Guidance Development Plan Document (DPD). Located on the low flat plateau of the Tendring Plain east of Colchester, the site comprises largely open arable fields with a historic network of tree and hedge-lines lanes. It included the steeply incised valley of the Salary Brook local nature reserve with areas of natural woodland, the historic hamlet of Crockleford Heath and Wivenhoe listed parkland to the south.
To inform the emerging masterplan, Gillespies and Tim Moya Associates conducted a high-level environmental audit to evaluate the existing landscape and habitats, along with a landscape and visual appraisal and testing. Informed by the appraisal, the landscape framework and spatial options for the settlement have been developed to protect and strengthen the existing valuable features of the site.
A key element of the framework is the proposal to incorporate the Salary Brook valley into a very special country park serving both the existing and new community and connecting into the Colchester orbital path. With its steep sides, thriving wetland habitats along the valley floor, and blocks of ancient woodland along the plateau edge, the framework protects the valley from further development as a piece of encapsulated countryside linking into the wider green infrastructure and nature recovery network of the Colne valley.
Project details
Title
Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community Masterplan
Client
Prior & Partners for Tendring and Colchester District Councils and Essex County Council
Status
Complete
Project team
Prior & Partners, Gillespies, Integrated Transport Planning, Tim Moya Associates, Hydrock and The Engagement group
Gillespies team
Oliver Smith, Sheena Bell, Irem Adal
