Agenda No.
2
HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
DEVELOPMENT CONTROL COMMITTEE
TUESDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2007 AT 10.00 AM
WATFORD BOROUGH
WATFORD HEALTH CAMPUS, VICARAGE ROAD / WIGGENHALL ROAD OUTLINE PLANNING APPLICATION
Report of the Director of Environment
Author: Nick Gough 01992 588431
Local Members: N Bell, S Giles-Medhurst
Adjoining Members: R Clements, M Colne, S Drury, R Gordon, A Oaten, S Rackett
1. Purpose of report
To inform members about the planning application submitted for the Watford Health Campus on which the County Council has been consulted as Highway Authority and obtain their views to inform the Director of Environment regarding his response to Watford Borough Council.
2. Summary
2.1 The application seeks outline planning approval for the major mixed use redevelopment of an area of West Watford incorporating Watford General Hospital and the Cardiff Road Industrial Estate.
2.2 The application site area comprises 26.4 hectares and forms part of the wider Watford Health Campus Masterplan site. The proposals include the development of a new major acute hospital, residential, commercial, business accommodation, leisure facilities and a power plant. There will also be greater access to public open spaces and the riverside environment.
2.3 Access to the site would be via a new road from Wiggenhall Road over the line of the proposed Croxley Rail Link. The site entrance would be connected in turn to the Dalton Way gyratory system by a new Link Road built at the developer’s expense.
2.4 Officers in the Transport Policy & Planning unit of the Environment Department are developing the response of the Director through technical analysis, internal consultation and discussion with the applicant. This report describes the application and the key points in respect of transport and the environment.
3. Conclusions
3.1 The County Council supports in principle the Health Campus project and the regeneration it could bring to an area previously shown to be in need of inward investment.
3.2 This is a significant development, which will have a major impact on the surroundings and operation of the local transport network. Discussions are proceeding subject to the applicant offering sufficient commitments in terms of measures and financial contributions to ensure that the application is consistent with the strategic planning and transportation objectives for this major site.
3.3 This report will recommend that Watford Borough Council should be informed that the County Council as strategic planning and highway authority could support this application subject to the imposition of planning conditions and the completion of legal agreements to:
· Secure highway improvements and financial contributions from the developer to improve the existing highway layout in order to cope with predicted increases in traffic and associated safety issues,
· secure a financial contribution for traffic calming measures to deter traffic from using inappropriate local roads,
· secure a financial contribution for casualty reduction measures on roads in the vicinity of the development,
· secure a financial contribution to enhance the public transport infrastructure related to the development which could include the Croxley Rail Link,
· secure a financial contribution to enhance local bus services.
· secure a financial contribution to enhance cycleways and footways in the area,
· ensure the implementation of a robust Green Travel Plan with financial contributions to cover the input of the County and Borough Councils,
· ensuring the implementation of appropriate extensions to the Controlled Parking Zone scheme in the area,
· secure phasing arrangement of construction of the development and appropriate transport provisions with commuted sums for future maintenance where appropriate, and
· secure measures to protect nature conservation, ecological balance and environmental management with some public access provisions deriving from the environmental assessment.
4. Description of the site
4.1 The Watford Health Campus would be built on a 26.5-hectare site in west Watford between Vicarage Road and the River Colne that includes Watford General Hospital and Watford Football Club. The extent of the site and the key featues in terms of access are shown in the indicative site layout at Appendix 1.
4.2 About one third (8.7 hectares) of the land under consideration was subject to an earlier Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) project centred on the Cardiff Road industrial area. The land in question was the Cardiff Road industrial estate, the Powergen site, the Carriage Sheds site and the ‘island site’.
4.3 Access to the site was proposed to have been from a new road (the Cardiff Road Link) off Wiggenhall Road. It was also proposed to build a new road from Wiggenhall Road to the Dalton Way gyratory known as the Wiggenhall Road Link. This would have been a fully functioning addition to the local road network because all movements at the junction with Wiggenhall Road would have been permitted.
4.4 The Wiggenhall Road Link was promoted by HCC as a new road to serve the development and the wider area of the south side of the town. Traffic assessment work was done to measure the predicted effects of the new link at that time. It was found to have had a neutral effect on the road network rather than providing relief to the southern part of the ring road and adjacent local roads as hoped. Its benefits were then judged not to outweigh its impacts, particularly those on the local environment and the scheme lost support.
4.5 Since that time the possibility of the hospital being rebuilt arose. This was a key element of the improved health care services planned by the East of England Strategic Health Authority (formerly the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Strategic Health Authority) as described in their publication, ‘Investing in Your Health’, 2003. Throughout this period Watford Football Club was also looking at ways to maximize the potential of its site. This combination of factors led to the formation of the partnership of key land owners and agencies that are now promoting this application. This group comprises East of England Development Agency, East of England Strategic Health Authority, Hertfordshire County Council, Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Trust, Hertfordshire Prosperity, Watford Borough Council, Watford Football Club, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, and West Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust.
5. Description of the proposed development
5.1 A planning application was submitted to Watford Borough Council by Turley Associates on behalf of West Hertfordshire Hospital NHS Trust on 31 July 2007. It followed an extensive period of pre-application work including discussion with the County and Borough Councils. Consultation with stakeholders was wide-ranging and the resulting Master Plan comprehensive.
5.2 Outline permission is being sought for the following new facilities:
· a 510 bed hospital to provide acute healthcare for West Hertfordshire
· GP and other healthcare clinics
· car parking for up to 2655 cars
· car-free affordable housing for NHS staff and other key workers
· private housing (houses and flats) – total residential 540 to 600 units
· offices and research facilities Class B1 (16,424 square metres)
· retail, financial and restaurant uses
· a 120 bedroom hotel
· crèche and nursery
· leisure facilities
· a combined heat and power plant to generate electricity using renewable fuel sources
· a new Access Road with bridge over the line of the Croxley Rail Link
· a Link Road from Dalton Way
· a lake and public open space.
5.3 The applicant’s programme anticipates construction commencing on the Campus site in the 3rd quarter of 2008, the completion of the main building elements by the end of 2018 and final completion of the scheme (landscaping) by the end of the 2019: an overall construction programme of eleven years.
5.4 Watford Borough Council’s Development Control Committee will be considering this application in a two-stage process. Their first meeting will be on 11 December to take a technical report from their officers and hear representations from objectors and other local stakeholders. They will meet again after Christmas to consider responses to the issues raised.
6. Planning considerations
6.1 Hertfordshire Structure Plan Review 1991-2011, adopted 1998
6.1.1 The Structure Plan has recently been revoked (letter from Government Office East 26 September 2007) as a step towards the Regional Spatial Strategy. A handful of polices pertaining to specific sites in Hertfordshire have been retained. Other matters in relation to this application are covered by elements of the Local Transport Plan Long Term Strategy document. Relevant policies are listed in the section that follows. The only relevant saved policy from the Structure Plan is:
6.1.2 Policy 28: New Roads
The first part of this policy relates to the purpose of new roads. The new Access and Link Roads are not being proposed to relieve adverse environmental conditions resulting from the effects of traffic on existing roads, However the Link Road has been shown to provide some relief. The main purpose of these new roads is to provide speedy and direct access for blue light traffic to the new hospital.
The second part of the policy relates to the enviromnntal impact of new roads and requires that ‘…every effort will be made to ensure that the physical impact of the road and its effect on the landscape and environment is minimised’. The developer has been advised that the new roads cannot be built on railway land and that the existing pylon carrying high voltage power lines over Oxhey Park cannot be moved. The environmental impacts of the Link and Access Road will therefore be reduced by the planting of tree and shrub screens.
The final requirement is that design of the new roads will be safety audited to ensure that potential safety hazards are eliminated or minimised. This will be carried out should the application be successful.
This policy is given in full in Appendix 2.
7. Highway authority issues
7.1 Local Transport Plan 2006-2011
· Safety: highest priority objective across all transport modes
· Congestion: to obtain the best use of the current transport network; managing the future growth of travel demand; developing an efficient, attractive, reliable and integrated network.
· Accessibility: removing socio-economic barriers creating social exclusion
· Environment: tackling the environmental impact of road transport; encouraging promotion of more sustainable personal modes of travel
· Reducing demand: reducing the need for travel by integrating land use planning and promoting sustainable distribution/ telecommunications.
· South West Hertfordshire Transport Strategy (currently under review) key principles summarised as demand management and the promotion of sustainable modes. Campus site lies on the edges of two Transport Plans developed under the area strategy: the Oxhey and West Watford Transport Plans. Both of these acknowledge the potential for development of the site and are consistent with this application.
In summary the proposed Watford Health Campus will be consistent with the outlined transportation polices.
7.2 Role of the Highways Agency
7.2.1 The Highways Agency has been consulted separately on the effects of this development on their network. The nearest motorway access points are M1 junction 5 (Berrygrove) and M25 junctions 19 and 20. These are at a distances of 3, 5 and 6 kilometres respectively.
7.2.2 The impetus behind the development is the need for the health authorities to rationalise acute facility hospitals in Hertfordshire and this will mean that patients and visitors will be travelling from Hemel Hempstead and the surrounding area to the new hospital. This catchment area enlargement will be more than offset by the increasing provision of less specialist care closer to each settlement. Those coming by car to the Health Campus will mainly travel down the County’s A41 and the Highways Agency’s M1. Access will therefore be via the A4008 Stephenson Way and A411 Waterfields Way dual carriageways then Lower High Street, Dalton Way and the proposed Link Road.
7.3 Existing transport facilities.
7.3.1 The site is bounded on its northern and eastern edges by Vicarage Road and Wiggenhall Road. These are busy urban A class principal roads serving as main distributors in the network and managed by Hertfordshire Highways for the County Council. Lying, as it does, just over half a mile from the centre of Watford there is an active network of walking and cycling routes albeit mainly on roads dominated by traffic.
7.3.2 Residential streets in the vicinity experience quite severe rat running problems. As a result traffic calming had been introduced over the years. The first area treated was Watford Fields which lies between Wiggenhall Road and Lower High Street. West Watford and Oxhey were then subject to intensive consultation and community involvement processes which resulted in the production of Transport Plans. An outcome of these was area-wide traffic calming in west Watford and the Rookery area of Oxhey.
7.3.3 There is generally a good level of public transport connectivity for the site. Six buses an hour pass the hospital in each direction during weekdays. They connect with the town centre which serves as the interchange for onward journey to other destinations and Watford Junction. Not every local destination is connected directly to the hospital, due to the nature of the bus route network. Certain public transport trips to the hospital require either interchange at Watford Town Centre or Watford Junction. Time lost in waiting for connecting services is reduced through the frequency of services together with a comparatively short walk time/distance for those who are able.
7.3.4 There are no railway lines serving the site, although the site is within close proximity to an existing live railway line and the redundant Croxley rail line passes across the southern section of the site. Therefore it is not currently possible to access the site directly by rail. The nearest railway stations are Watford High Street (1km) and Watford Junction (1.6km).
7.3.5 Watford is served by a spur off the London Underground Metropolitan line. Watford station is located away from the town centre, in a predominantly suburban area approximately 1 kilometre west of the town centre and approximately 1.5 kilometres north-west of the site.
7.4 Transportation Assessment
7.4.1 A report on the Transportation Assessment (TA) has been submitted in support of the current outline planning application. The report has been prepared following discussions between the stakeholder group, HCC, Watford Borough Council, the Highways Agency and the applicant’s traffic consultant, Gifford Ltd, on the traffic implications of the development and potential measures to mitigate them.