Our work so far: your views welcome
We are now starting to work with neighbouring communities to develop a shared vision and robust approach to bringing forward an exciting new community, which works with its neighbours and with the wider landscape and environment.
Over the next few months we will start workshops and consultation events to take this forward, including developing our work on the key themes that have emerged to date, including:
Transport and Movement
We know this is a huge concern locally, with the fear of car focused development. We want to tackle that head on, by creating a place where cycling, walking and public transport options come first and get you where you need to go. This will mean creating new walkable neighbourhoods, enhanced off site connections by cycle, walking, and public transport, and critically provision of fibre to homes from day one to enable flexible working and limit the need for travel.
What are we doing now:
We are working with the highways authorities, public transport operators and others to develop a sustainable transport strategy that provides options for new residents and widens choices for neighbouring communities.
Next steps:
Delivering a genuinely non-car led approach to transport may involve some hard choices which will impact on local journeys. We want to share and discuss these opportunities and challenges openly with you to find the right solutions that can genuinely change behaviours and benefit wider communities by providing reliable transport choices to get people where they need to go.
Ecology and Environment
Bowmans Cross will be a new settlement that respects the identity of its neighbours, enhancing the Green Belt in agreed locations, to maintain and improve green spaces between towns and villages. The development will work with the existing mature landscape, and further enhance woodlands, and green spaces to protect existing species and landscapes, and ensure connections within a comprehensive green infrastructure strategy.
What are we doing now:
We are working with the highways authorities, public transport operators and others to develop a sustainable transport strategy that provides options for new residents and widens choices for neighbouring communities.
Next steps:
Delivering a genuinely non-car led approach to transport may involve some hard choices which will impact on local journeys. We want to share and discuss these opportunities and challenges openly with you to find the right solutions that can genuinely change behaviours and benefit wider communities by providing reliable transport choices to get people where they need to go.
Community Facilities
The impact of Covid has highlighted the importance of community and future resilience in creating new places. Bowmans Cross has the opportunity to show what a focus on community can achieve not just for those that live on the site but for everyone around it. Our Vision is to create a series of walkable local neighbourhoods with a mix of facilities which are delivered alongside new homes and benefit not just Bowmans Cross but the wider community.
Next steps:
Delivering a genuinely non-car led approach to transport may involve some hard choices which will impact on local journeys. We want to share and discuss these opportunities and challenges openly with you to find the right solutions that can genuinely change behaviours and benefit wider communities by providing reliable transport choices to get people where they need to go.
We are working with local health partners to bring forward a new Health Centre, at the heart of a layout designed to encourage movement and activity, and to ensure it complements the new surgery in London Colney and existing service provision.
On Education we are in discussions with authorities and are working through the provision of up to two new secondary schools and up to 5 new primary schools. We will locate these to ensure easy access for neighbouring communities, with the first secondary school planned for the north of the development area to support the challenges we know local students and parents face.
Economy
Bowmans Cross is not just about creating homes. To be sustainable all places need employment, but it is vital the right spaces come forward in the right places to meet future needs. Covid has also changed working and shopping patterns and needs. We want Bowmans Cross to provide the space for people and innovative businesses to grow, as well as ensuring new retail provision complements that at neighbouring locations and carefully considers wider impacts.
Next steps:
We are continuing to discuss employment requirements with local economic partners and business and would welcome your views. We are also focussing on setting up the whole development as a National Skills Academy for Construction and the Built Environment: embedding local training opportunities, employment, contracts and apprenticeships as a fundamental part of the planning and delivery set up: mandating contractors and housebuilders to use local supply chain, and starting work with the Construction Industry Training Board and local colleges to support training people up for the opportunities that lie ahead if the development moves forward.
New Homes
Bowmans Cross needs to deliver a range of sustainable, high quality homes that meet the needs of the local area as part of a balanced new community for all.
Understanding local housing needs
From our discussions so far, we are very aware of the challenges of affordability locally and are engaging with local councils to ensure that Bowmans Cross can contribute to delivering the homes that people need and deliver them through innovative tenures and options to ensure they are accessible to all.
We know that achieving net zero carbon will influence all aspects of how people live at Bowmans Cross from design of new homes to power, transport, buildings and waste. By incorporating these elements into our thinking from the outset, we can work with new technologies, with contractors and housebuilders and key stakeholders to ensure innovative and holistic approaches.
Urban&Civic does not just secure planning for developments but are custodians of them as well. We will deliver the landscaping, infrastructure and key community facilities ourselves and work with local contractors and providers. We deliver the development in phases to ensure at any one time, each phase delivers homes alongside facilities, transport connections and green space hand in hand; creating communities, not housing estates.
That is why we want to ensure all the plans are as robust as possible and everyone understands the different elements that need to come together to make a successful place. We want to engage with you to help us challenge and find new ways of housing delivery.
