Springhead Farm, Puriton

Project summary

Despite being in the settlement boundary, this was a challenging site affected by numerous constraints. It includes significant areas within flood zones 2 and 3, adjoins a Viewed Rhyne and has numerous trees (including 5 TPOs). The GTH Planning and Architectural team were able to design a sensitive scheme that addresses all of these constraints and that will be a really positive addition to Puriton.

There are some useful lessons to take from this project including

Tailored and targeted public consultation is key: We prepared a concise consultation document and sent this to the immediate neighbours and Parish Council. This led to some positive direct engagement from individuals around the site, which ultimately led to us making alterations to the scheme prior to submission.

Always engage with the Internal Drainage Board (IDB) before submission: With the site adjoining a Viewed Rhyne we consulted the IDB on our proposals prior to submission. Although the IDB sets standards for retaining wide buffers from new development, we were able to negotiate significantly reduced buffers in this case.

The loss of TPO trees can be justified in certain cases: Tree retention was central to our strategy for the site, however there were two TPO trees that we couldn't design around. By engaging with the Council’s Tree Officer at the pre-application stage we were able to agree an approach that would allow for the loss of these two trees if the other three were retained and a comprehensive and sensitive landscaping strategy provided.

Parish Councils can come around: Although the Parish Council initially objected to the application, they ultimately agreed to remove their objection after we made some minor alterations to the scheme and addressed some of their other concerns.