The emerging proposal

Local centre

Medical centre

Care home

Nursery and retail centre

Landscaping

Drainage

Architecture

Access and parking

Sustainability

Energy efficiency

Project timescales

The Local Centre has been located to the north of the development to provide community uses in closer proximity to the existing village of Kelvedon. It will contain a new Medical Centre facility, a 66 bed Care Home that will provide for local needs, as well as a new nursery with outside amenities and a retail unit for local convenience needs

The Medical Centre layout has been approved by the NHS and will be constructed as part of an early phase of development. The building and the land use area required are designed to meet current needs and allow for future-proofing with further expansion designed into the proposals.

The 66 bed care home is designed to cater for family needs, when care is no longer possible at home. The 2-storey building is designed to be a place of respite with exterior garden amenity and the facility internally to assist with the care of its residents. A proven Care Home builder and operator are taking on this element.

The local and strategic landscape setting has been considered throughout the design process to provide a development that respects and integrates with its context.

Key features include:

  • Attractive Local Centre

  • Circular walking route

  • Central equipped play area with natural elements

  • Informal play features located along walking routes

  • Allotments and community orchard area

  • Heritage Trail respecting the Listed Building setting

  • Tree lined streets

  • Attractive and biodiverse planting scheme

  • Enhancement of existing trees and vegetation

  • Interaction with drainage features

The Sustainable urban Drainage System (SuDS) strategy has been updated and revised to meet the needs of the development and will ensure that the water is discharged at the equivalent greenfield run-off rates.

These features will also provide opportunity for enhancement in Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), as well as attractive landscape features within the landscape areas.

Two vehicular site access points into the development are to come from London Road, allowing the principal route to meander through the lower part of the development, with lower order roads connecting from it. The site is highly permeable, offering pedestrian routes throughout the development, as well as through the open spaces.

Parking has been designed to meet local standards, as well as to reduce the dominance of parking across the layout with limited use of parking courts. Visitor parking has been distributed across this development for ease of convenience, whilst provision for parking for uses such as the Medical Centre has been designed for now and with a provision for future expansion.

Barratt David Wilson Homes have for the last decade had a formal partnership with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to set a benchmark for nature-friendly developments and to create open space that will increase biodiversity and protect existing species. Together we have produced wildlife-friendly landscaping guides for our design teams and customers, and launched Nature On Your Doorstep, a national campaign full of hints and tips on how to help wildlife thrive.

Their commitments on Biodiversity are outlined within the Nature pillar of the Building Sustainably framework and focus on creating a legacy of resilient landscapes and communities, delivering net gains for biodiversity, and contributing to the conservation of local biodiversity priorities. With their national roll-out programme embedding biodiversity best practice across all regions completed in the year, all their sites submitted for planning demonstrate a minimum BNG of 10%. They introduced this target in January 2023, 10 months ahead of legislation. They have achieved this by avoiding the areas of greatest biodiversity value, minimising the environmental impacts of their operations, and enhancing existing and creating new habitats on their developments.

The Future Homes Standard (Part L 2025) is the key piece of policy driving the Government’s current approach to zero carbon housebuilding in England. It is focused on reducing operational carbon emissions through design and will require all new homes to achieve a 75-80% carbon reduction from 2025. To smooth the transition towards this standard, the Government has implemented an interim standard (Part L 2021) requiring all new developments going through planning in England to achieve a 31% carbon reduction. Barratt David Wilson's homes are designed in line with and meet the standard, achieving a 31% carbon reduction.

The nursery and retail provision will provide the additional community amenities. The nursery will cater for early years care, likely up to the age of reception. The building is part of the Local Centre and will be part of the overall Kelvedon community. The Local Centre, as intended from the Outline Planning application, will have a retail unit within the plans. This will provide everyday convenience items to support the Local Centre and the immediate community.

The overall design of the site is sub-divided into 5 character areas listed below. All dwellings have been designed with an understanding of the local vernacular and a desire to create a development that integrates with the existing architectural vernacular and wider landscape setting.

As a result, the emerging material palette includes red multi brick, buff brick, dark grey cladding, stone cills, and pink render. You can view visuals of the emerging elevation drawings on the Vision page of this website.

The indicative timescales for the reserved matters planning process are:

  • Public consultation – September and October 2024

  • Residential reserved matters application submitted – Late Autumn 2024

  • Decision by Braintree Council – Spring 2025

  • Start of construction - Winter 2025