Principles
Adopted in 2016 the 10 principles set out below were intended to help guide the creation of new communities at Manydown now and in the future, with their presence being traceable in all aspects of the design and delivery of the new place and its communities.
They were formulated through a process including:
- a study of successful places and what makes them successful;
- the original Manydown vision;
- input from the community during stages of engagement and consultation.
Learning from what worked and what didn’t in past development – historic and modern, local and international – our focus is to make Manydown the best it can possibly be in its own unique way.
This will be through capturing local knowledge and a commitment to excellence in the planning and design of Manydown, in the way it is developed and in the way it provides outstanding environmental performance and a high quality of life for all who live and work there. Manydown: the place of excellence founded and shaped by a culture of ambition.
What we mean by this
It is critically important to get the layout and physical infrastructure for Manydown right at the outset and future-proofed as far as possible to be able to adapt to cultural, technological, environmental and economic change. Our aim is to establish an enduring and adaptable framework for Manydown referenced against the best in class, not just in the UK– considering both contemporary and much loved older places. It requires excellence in urban planning and design, transport planning and in engineering.
All involved must aim to achieve the highest standards of quality and to learn lessons from recent housing developments. We intend that Manydown will come to be seen as among the finest new places in the UK: its streets and green spaces will be full of life; its housing will be well-designed, have broad appeal and offer choice; its schools and health and social care provision will be outstanding; its architecture will inspire, endure and be cherished and its streets and transport systems and services will move people around safely and enjoyably, efficiently and sustainably.
The economic model for the delivery of Manydown will be in tune with these aims, innovating as necessary to ensure that the investment is able to deliver these values. Our partners will be chosen carefully to ensure wholehearted alignment with our vision, bringing their expertise and ideas to help deliver our shared goals.
And the process of engagement used to plan, design and help grow Manydown will itself build capacity across the communities to remain ambitious, to overcome the many practical challenges they will face and still be driven by quality throughout.
Manydown is being shaped through active engagement with people and organisations across the town, borough and county. We are committed to a systematic and creative programme of joint working between democratically appointed decision-makers, local people, organisations and businesses and our professional planners, designers, engineers and other specialists.
This will continue through the planning, design and development, creating the networks, bonds and processes that will greatly enrich the project into the future.
What we mean by this
The engagement programme for Manydown has been designed to involve people in shaping all aspects of this new place. Through comprehensive engagement at each key stage of the evolution of the plans, Manydown is, and will continue to be, the product of the joint work of local experts and organisations and professional specialists, each with respect for the other.
As public authority custodians, the strategic partnership between Basingstoke and Deane and Hampshire councils, with their different and complementary resources and responsibilities, helps to create a truly coordinated approach for all aspects of Manydown. In this way there is a better chance that issues as different as, for instance, housing, highways, education, utilities and the proposed country park can be addressed in an integrated way and with an overview of the whole development and place in mind.
In due course this will be combined with the expertise and resources of major private sector partners – appointed both for the values and creative thinking they share with us and their ability to share risks and rewards; together we will create an effective delivery mechanism fully in tune with the project aims.
We also aim to establish relationships with many varied types of partners, developers, builders and owners, as well as providers of social, cultural and environmental services. This will help ensure that the place and its community provide diversity and choice to meet local needs as well as extensive opportunities for local businesses and social enterprises of all kinds
Manydown aims to provide housing and opportunities for all. We intend that it will appeal and offer choices to people irrespective of their age, household income and tastes.
It will be a place that helps local people, especially those starting out in life, a place that attracts people who can choose to live wherever they like and a place that has plenty to offer people who want to stay for the longer term.
What we mean by this
Manydown will provide homes for a wide range of circumstances, needs and incomes, for example, for young people starting out in life, for settled families and other households, for the re-locating entrepreneur and executive and for the mature downsizer.
Manydown can and will address housing affordability, particularly for borough residents, in new and innovative ways in order to enable people to live their lives to the full in the area.
With mixed and well-integrated communities, a dynamic local economy and the widest variety of homes, there will be good opportunities for jobs, education and training.
The intention is that Manydown will provide excellent primary and secondary schooling through the provision of new schools on site, which will also provide education opportunities for families in the wider area. In short, the aim is to ensure that Manydown connects well with its surroundings and fosters good social and economic relations to ensure that it contributes in a positive way to the life of the borough.
Our ambition is to deliver great design at Manydown –in a way that will enrich the lives of all who live and work there, pass through and use its centre, parks and facilities.
Our challenge is to create a strong and distinctive identity that works in its geographical and cultural context while providing a wide range of housing types and designs, streets and public green and other open spaces that ensure broad appeal.
Manydown will be unique, blending different elements and designs that meet the needs and tastes of its diverse communities.
What we mean by this
Manydown will not be ‘any town’. At Manydown we wish to explore how we can rediscover traditional and proven Hampshire urban layouts and materials at the same time as developing a specific 21st century context with the best of contemporary design and innovative delivery. The urban design will aim to achieve a visual coherence that can support many architectures and building forms, further improving its sense of place.
As our starting point we are using the Vision for Manydown as a guide to the urban design principles that will inspire the plans for the new settlement. Our aim is to make decisions relating to the layout and types of buildings, connections, public open spaces and car parking provision as future proofed as possible to give developers and their architects the best chance of building excellent homes. There will be continual checks on designs as they come forward through the development process to help ensure high standards are met throughout.
The well-resourced strategic development partners needed for a project of this size will create frameworks and opportunities for smaller and newer types of partners and builders – some of whom might already be operating locally – to help achieve the richer designs and built environments we seek.
Manydown aims to be a good neighbour to people living in adjacent communities. Notwithstanding the fact that a new greenfield settlement of this size is bound to have significant visual and other impacts, Manydown seeks to improve access for local people to good quality shops and services, to attractive and well-managed green spaces and good schooling and employment.
It aims to set new higher standards in design and assist a shift towards improved transport connections and services and for more environmentally sustainable development in regard to, for instance, energy efficiency and supply, urban biodiversity and mobility.
What we mean by this
Manydown will embrace the concept of ‘walkable neighbourhoods’ – that is where most everyday needs can be met within walking distance of every home. Characterised by a strong street hierarchy and network, plentiful connections, carefully-considered parking provision and local services such as schools and convenience stores, primary health care and employment located within easy reach, by foot or bicycle; this will minimise the need to travel by car for every journey.
The new neighbourhoods will respect and connect with adjacent communities via good, direct, street and cycle links helping to improve local connections and, where possible, bring new life to existing centres.
Manydown will aim to provide accessible and attractive shops, cafés, public services and community facilities, as well as ease of access to the country park, new primary and secondary schools and employment opportunities.
The size of Manydown means that it will need to consider a range of transport choices to enable ease and safety of movement for all. This is likely to mean that together with pedestrian and cycle movements within neighbourhoods bus connections and services to the centre of town, to places of major employment, to the hospital and the train station will become essential.
The streets and urban blocks at Manydown will be designed to be pedestrian and cycle friendly together with well-considered parking provision and an infrastructure that welcomes and enables the coming shift towards electric and other future vehicles. The main street at Manydown will be the spine of the new community and highlight its commitment to excellent design for ease of use of different types of transport, including walking and cycling.
The intention is that a well-planned range of sustainable transport choices will make for a better quality of life, a friendly place and a cleaner environment as well as improved health and wellbeing for those living there.
At Manydown we are committed to creating a community – a sense of common identity and belonging, of neighbourliness, of caring and working for the welfare and enjoyment of all who live there.
Successful communities need shared places and spaces in which to flourish, for people to meet both formally and informally and to relax, to learn, to play and to work. The focal point for this will be the Manydown centre with its nearby park, leisure, work and community activity facilities. All of these will be connected by a network of elegant streets and other public spaces to support a welcoming and vibrant community.
What we mean by this
Many modern housing estates don’t allow strong communities to form easily; with streets dominated by cars, without proper pavements or safe crossings, lacking in focal points such as high streets or market and garden squares and deprived of public services and facilities that bring people together, such as community centres, shops and places of worship.
We will help grow communities from the outset through the layout of Manydown in which the spaces and connections between buildings are seen to be as important as the homes and other buildings. All effort will be made in the layout and through detailed design to make Manydown a social place with places and spaces for people to be together; a close-grain of uses, activities and buildings in central areas will bring the community together.
The aim is to plan new developments at Manydown so as to connect well with and improve facilities and opportunities for people living in established communities adjacent to the site.
We believe that a social infrastructure plan is important in order to both define the provision of education, health and social care, sport, leisure and other services and encourage clusters to form around centres and main streets for ease of access and efficiency. For example, junior schools need to be in neighbourhoods so that they are within walking distance. The development will be planned with safety in mind to help prevent crime and deter antisocial behaviour.
Successful places of the scale of Manydown are not just about housing but also stimulate an active and dynamic economic life. This creates employment, generates local income and money to be spent in shops and to support services of various kinds; it brings more life onto the streets.
A diverse and busy local economy also reduces the need to travel longer distances and therefore eases congestion and enhances individual quality of life. We intend that Manydown will accommodate a wide range of employment facilities and have a culture that encourages and supports enterprise and business.
What we mean by this
We see the opportunity for business to be in the community. Manydown will provide the opportunity for employment spaces and buildings of different types and scales. These will range from home working and start-up hubs, to small to medium-sized high quality office
workspaces, dotted throughout in adaptable premises which can change easily between different commercial and social uses and/or from residential to commercial and back again.
The combination of local employment, housing and social provision – closely integrated on main streets and centres – will give Manydown activity and an appealing buzz.
Manydown is blessed with a beautiful rural setting. Our aim is to make the new settlement itself as compact as possible to make good use of the land and enhance the town, but also to benefit from a well-planned system of green spaces that provide range of social, ecological and environmental benefits.
What we mean by this
Local residents and people living in the rest of the borough can all enjoy the new country park at Manydown. But the aim is to make the whole place especially green, with a range of open and green spaces, from garden squares to pocket parks, playing fields and grounds, preserved woodland and other habitats through to smaller public flowerbeds and herb and community food-growing areas throughout the development.
Major streets will be tree-lined and have play spaces and shared gardens to complement private gardens attached to many of the homes; the councils are exploring new models of community management for the upkeep of green spaces.
The purpose of this will be to bring the built environment to life, with appropriate levels of colour, texture and softness and create a green town landscape with ecological worth that serves and enhances biodiversity. We will cherish and manage the local environment for its own sake, for the wildlife it supports and for the enjoyment and resources it provides. This level of greenery can also help reduce flooding risk– as an integral part of the well-planned urban drainage system – and provide an attractive and valued feature across the neighbourhoods.
Our intention is to underpin Manydown with a long-term economic plan and financial model. This is being designed to maximise value across the whole life the project so that the long-term quality and sustainability of the place and its communities is not jeopardised.
Governance arrangements will be designed to fit with this commitment to stewardship of civic and other land and property assets and the welfare of future residents.
What we mean by this
Developers often take a short-term interest in a development to make maximum profit with least risk as rapidly as possible. By contrast, while managing risk carefully, the councils aim to adopt a long-life model that will support the quality and future asset value and social value of the development of Manydown.
Through a suitable long-term economic model working with strategic partners, the councils will ensure Manydown becomes a great place and stays that way. They will commit to being effective stewards of place, community and the environment.
Long-term investment will provide the physical infrastructure of roads and utilities that creates the framework for the place. A return on this investment – which is tied into land and housing values – will be achieved over many years from the increase in the values of land and property.
In addition, the councils may decide to develop some property themselves and retain these assets to provide on-going annual income, which could be through retained freeholds or rental scheme projects as well as commercial properties. It is therefore important that the councils enter into partnership arrangements with businesses and other organisations that also believe in long-term value creation.
Through developing a better place at Manydown, funds can also be created to be re-invested in public and other services. In this way, the councils intend to act as long term stewards – both by involving communities in planning and governance from the outset and also by retaining an active interest in the way the communities operate.
The aim is to plan, design and build Manydown well with the qualities and character both to endure physically and be cherished by its residents so that people actively want it to last. Clear policies and standards will be established and formalised to help ensure this actually happens.
We take environmental sustainability very seriously in regard to climate change, biodiversity, clean air and minimising waste and pollution, meeting, and wherever possible exceeding expectations. This commitment will help all involved plan and design a place that works better, is more cost-efficient and is a healthier and happier place for all.
What we mean by this
Central to this long-term view – the sense that buildings and public spaces can and should improve with age and not become redundant – is that they are designed for resilience and flexibility to allow change. This can be through enabling changes in the use of buildings as happens in the older places many people admire or the way different households wish to live in a home.
This principle does not just apply to the buildings at Manydown. It applies equally to the social structures and governance arrangements, the green and other open spaces, the lack of dependency on outmoded technologies and practices and the ability to respond to changing cultural, economic and business conditions.
Manydown aims to be a leader in its environmental commitments, impacts and the social and economic benefits arising from this. The councils aim to make challenging specific commitments for Manydown with measurement and monitoring systems to chart progress, making improvements and building on successes.
The aim is that achieving resilience and excellent environmental performance is incorporated into Manydown from the beginning, enlisting the enthusiasm and energy of the whole town and acting to help make healthy, sustainable lifestyles and well-being easy and natural choices for all who live here in the future.