Datchet Design Guide
Thank you to everyone who took the opportunity to evaluate and comment on the Datchet Design Guide during the 2020 consulation. Your feedback was generally very positive and your comments have helped to improve it further. We're delighted to announce that the Datchet Design Guide was adopted by RBWM cabinet as a Supplementary Planning Document on 25 February 2021. We hope it will ensure that any new development in Datchet is visually attractive, sympathetic to local character and history, and maintains a strong sense of place.
What is the Datchet Design Guide?
In 2019-20, Datchet’s Neighbourhood Plan (DNP) group was talking to residents and pounding the pavements with a team of planners, helping to identify the design quality which makes our village a distinctive and attractive place.
In collaboration with the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM) and a specialist urban design, planning and development consultancy, the information has been distilled into a Datchet Design Guide (DDG). Its purpose is to help home owners, developers and planners to maintain and improve Datchet in ways which are in keeping with the character of our village.
The intention is that any new development, big or small, extension or loft conversion, should reinforce this character, using cues from the local area to create a design which is sympathetic to its surroundings while providing a contemporary interpretation.
This is particularly relevant for Datchet as the submission version of RBWM’s Borough Local Plan includes a proposal for 80 new homes on a site known as AL39 (formerly HA42) between London Road and the motorway. The Datchet Design Guide will help to ensure that any new development is visually attractive and sympathetic to local character and history, and maintains a strong sense of place.
A Design Guide can also help to resolve some of the issues highlighted by residents on the DNP character assessment walks, at the drop-in sessions and other events, and in the village-wide survey.
In collaboration with the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM) and a specialist urban design, planning and development consultancy, the information has been distilled into a Datchet Design Guide (DDG). Its purpose is to help home owners, developers and planners to maintain and improve Datchet in ways which are in keeping with the character of our village.
The intention is that any new development, big or small, extension or loft conversion, should reinforce this character, using cues from the local area to create a design which is sympathetic to its surroundings while providing a contemporary interpretation.
This is particularly relevant for Datchet as the submission version of RBWM’s Borough Local Plan includes a proposal for 80 new homes on a site known as AL39 (formerly HA42) between London Road and the motorway. The Datchet Design Guide will help to ensure that any new development is visually attractive and sympathetic to local character and history, and maintains a strong sense of place.
A Design Guide can also help to resolve some of the issues highlighted by residents on the DNP character assessment walks, at the drop-in sessions and other events, and in the village-wide survey.
How will it work?
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The Datchet Design Guide (DDG) will sit alongside the Borough-wide Design Guide (BDG) and Borough Local Plan, adding a layer of specific local detail. While the BDG covers key principles which apply to modern suburbs and new estates as well as historic towns and villages across the entire Borough, Datchet’s Design Guide will cover the finer detail, the locally-specific design elements which have evolved over time to give our village its unique character, making it distinct from its neighbours. If a subject is already well covered in the Borough’s Guide, it has not been duplicated in the DDG.
As a Supplementary Planning Document, the DDG will form part of the Local Development Framework, offering guidance for householders, for commercial properties and large-scale new developments. Anyone planning any form of new development in Datchet will be expected to take the DDG policies into account. |
Do we need a design guide?
Government policy states that planning permission should be refused for poorly-designed development which does not take advantage of opportunities available for improving the character and quality of an area and the way it functions.
To this end, local authorities are working with local communities to develop design policies. RBWM secured a grant from the Government’s Design Quality Fund for the development of a Datchet Design Guide to support Datchet's Neighbourhood Plan.
The current public consultation gives us all an opportunity to evaluate and comment on the proposals, and have a say in the way our village develops.
To this end, local authorities are working with local communities to develop design policies. RBWM secured a grant from the Government’s Design Quality Fund for the development of a Datchet Design Guide to support Datchet's Neighbourhood Plan.
The current public consultation gives us all an opportunity to evaluate and comment on the proposals, and have a say in the way our village develops.
Where can I view the Datchet Design Guide?
The Datchet Design Guide will be uploaded to the RBWM website as a Supplementary Planning Document. It can also be viewed here, on the Datchet Neighbourhood Plan website.
If you have any enquiries, please contact RBWM’s Planning Policy Department by email, [email protected] or by telephone (01628) 796357.