Warrington Town Centre SPD adopted
We are pleased to announce that our Town Centre Supplementary Planning Document has been adopted by Warrington Borough Council's Cabinet Committee, supporting the opportunity to make Warrington a highly liveable town.
Working closely with members of Warrington Borough Council, Matt Brook Architects co-authored the recently adopted Supplementary Planning Document that provides guidance for all future applications within Warrington Town Centre.
Our work focused upon transitioning the town towards a more liveable centre with an emphasis on placemaking to support an increased residential population. Liaising with officers and stakeholders across the Council, Matt Brook Architects established a process and design rationale for the guidance that not only reflects the priorities of the Council but also reflects other relevant, forward-looking guidance.
The design guidance is structured at four different scales to deliver liveability for Warrington Town Centre; Town Scale, Neighbourhood Scale, Urban Block Scale and, Dwelling Scale.
At a Town Scale guidance seeks to capitalise on Warrington’s assets such as the River Mersey and its historic street pattern as well as opportunities to improve gateways and entrances to the centre alongside changing the centre from a vehicle-dominated environment to one that prioritises pedestrian movements.
Neighbourhood guidance focuses upon strengthening the neighbourhood identity of existing development quarters of the town centre, an integral part of making the town centre more liveable. In addition to guidance tailored for individual areas, multi-area applicable guidance focuses upon visual consistency and improved connectivity alongside multi-generational and accessible design guidance.
Urban Block guidance provides important and practical guidance to secure high quality placemaking, covering active street frontages, servicing, amenity and green spaces, design to foster community and neighbourliness, responding to environmental issues and sustainable design.
Dwelling guidance secures the quality of future homes for Warrington, which is fundamental to delivering a liveable environment for the town. Guidance promotes dwellings that are well designed in respect of their size, proportions and arrangement, including highlighting the benefits of dual aspect design, with access to external amenity space and responsive to environmental parameters.
