Neighbourhood Plan for the Ridgemount Area Residents Associati

R.A.R.A

NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN FOR THE RIDGEMOUNT AREA RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION – WORKING COPY

Purpose of the Neighbourhood Plan

The purpose of this plan is to establish a set of policies that reflect the views of the residents of the Ridgemount Area (RA) and that support the Southampton Local Development Framework Core Strategy Development Plan.

The RA’s primary purpose is to maintain and improve the quality of the environment of the area as a whole and to safeguard the amenities of individual properties retaining the extensive wooded character and its wildlife.

The Southampton Core Strategic Development Plan clearly identifies a need for larger properties suitable for family housing to support Southampton’s abilities to attract new and dynamic businesses to the area. The area in its existing form continues to satisfy this need and should be safeguarded.

Area Covered

The Ridgemount Area is situated on the West side of Bassett Avenue and contains 100 dwellings between Holly Hill and Golf Course Road. The boundaries are Bassett Avenue on the East side, Holly Hill on the South side, Golf Course Road on the North side and the Municipal Golf Course on the West side. See attached map. (Map will accompany our final draft)

The roads covered are: Ridgemount Avenue, Ridgemount Lane, Ardnave Crescent, Greenbank Crescent, Cleek Drive, Golf Course Road, Bassett Mews and 143,145,147,165,167,177and 179 Bassett Avenue.

(In this document these Roads will be defined as the Ridgemount Area)

History and Development of the Area

Until the mid Nineteenth Century, the Ridgemount Area was a wooded area with no dwellings and was part of the Fleming Estate in the Parish of North Stoneham. The first dwellings to be built on the West side of what is now Bassett Avenue, were large Victorian villas which had estates of roughly 12 acres scattered along the Ridge of Bassett Avenue. The Ridgemount Area sits on the estates of two villas: Ardnave House and Ridgemount House. Ridgemount House was demolished circa 1920’s. The Stables and Gardeners Cottage still exist. In 1920 the Bassett Avenue area became part of Southampton when it was included in a boundary extension and became known as Bassett. The area was gradually sold off in small lots from the late 1920’s until the 1960’s. Nearly all the plots are quarter of an acre, some slightly bigger and some slightly smaller than this. These plots were developed individually in accordance with the residential allocation and low density provisions of the development plan. Individual architect designed detached houses were built on these plots mainly between the late 1920’s and 1950’s. As part of the history of this area it should be noted that each plot of about 0.25 acre in this original housing development, had a covenant of only having a single dwelling on it. This has helped to define the style and tree dominated area and new residents “buy-in” to this philosophy in their transfer deeds. There were a handful of larger plots which have now all been sub- divided and in-filled with large detached houses. Ardnave House was demolished in the late 1980’s and was replaced by Bassett Mews, a two-storey development in the style of Mews houses and consists of 24 maisonettes. With the exception of Bassett Mews, all the other houses define our area – i.e. large detached houses in mature gardens with many of the original large trees remaining. Ridgemount Avenue, Ardnave Crescent and Greenbank Crescent all have grass verges on both sides of their roads with trees planted in them adding to the overall sylvan feel. Despite the evolution of this area from woodlands to a residential area, it has still retained much of its former character.

In the larger area on the West side of Bassett Avenue, properties are characterized mainly by traditionally styled large detached two-storey private houses within generous gardens with dense screening along their boundaries that add to the area’s sylvan character. This is further reinforced by many of the houses being set back within their plots. The gaps between properties afford the area a sense of suburban spaciousness, which is a defining characteristic of the locality. The overall spatial quality of the area is due mainly to the extensive wooded plots, many of which have a significant cover of trees and shrubs throughout. The trees and shrubs also provide and support many species of wildlife and the west side of Bassett Avenue is identified as an important wildlife corridor. Individual styling of houses and large plots characterize the area and provides executive family housing which Southampton City Council has identified as a very important part of Southampton’s housing stock and which Southampton needs to retain and enhance to encourage business people to want to live and work here.

Control of Development

The resident’s criteria for new housing

Any person or organization wishing to develop any plot in this area must involve the residents association by discussing their plans before making a planning application.

Given that there are no obvious green or brownfield sites, with the exception of one site which has planning permission (land between 6 and 10 Greenbank Crescent), any future development is expected to take the form of the replacement of private dwellings with replacement houses of a similar size and existing density in keeping with that found in the Ridgemount Area.

Development will be restricted to single plots. Combinations of plots in excess of this will not be allowed. A plot is defined as an existing house standing in its own garden and not part of a garden of an existing house.

Development of individual plots should take the form of replacement only.

No flats, apartments or any other form of attached housing or very large houses being built and then subdivided into flats will be permitted. There are already a large number of high density flats immediately adjacent to our area on the east side of Bassett Avenue.

No commercial buildings or retail outlets.

No care homes as the residents support the city councils care in the community strategy[1]

“There is a need to ensure that there is a range of housing and support solutions to enable vulnerable people to maintain independence in their own homes in the community”.

All new development will require detailed drawings and specification of materials to be used. In addition a detailed colour CGI street scene showing the adjacent properties will be required.

Any new development will not be permitted in front of the existing established building line

Any new development will have to provide off road parking for at least 2 cars per house in addition to any garage parking.

Any new development should seek to blend with and compliment the general low scale and wooded character of the area. And while traditional designs of buildings will be encouraged, modern architecture will be acceptable as long as it is of good architectural design and enhances the street scene.

The location, scale, form and massing of new buildings should be carefully arranged in relation to adjacent properties, topography and landscape features.

Buildings that will be acceptable are detached, two-storey family homes of minimum 4 bedrooms and maximum 6 bedrooms.Min 150 to Max 250 Square metres of floor space.

The 6 bedroom maximum is to avoid overbearing scale to neighbouring properties.

Minimum Distance between any buildings will be five metres. No building should exceed 25% of the plot size.

The resident’s criteria for extensions to existing dwellings

All extensions will require detailed drawings and specification of materials to be used.

Extensions to side and rear of property should be of a scale and form that is sympathetic to the neighbouring properties and that doesn’t have a detrimental effect on their neighbour’s amenities. Extensions will not be built less than three metres away from neighbour’s property. The dwellings maximum total number of bedrooms acceptable is 6

The total allowable footprint of any building should not exceed 35% of the plot size.

Good quality materials and finishes will only be accepted. No increase to the ridge height will be accepted.

Minor extensions to existing buildings in front of building lines may be permitted only if they enhance the character of the building and street scene.

Trees in development sites

Any development must be accompanied by a detailed and accurate tree survey indicating precise location, species and size of all existing trees and mature shrubs.

Trees with preservation orders may not be felled, lopped, topped, damaged or destroyed.

Trees and mature shrubs that do not have preservation orders and that would need to be felled in order to build would need to be replaced with similar types on another part of the site.

A planting scheme will need to be submitted with any new development or extension.

Grass Verges

Grass verges will be protected as is and will not be allowed to be made smaller by road widening or surfaced in any way.

Parking

In the interest of visual amenity, on street parking spoils the character of the area and will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances i.e. for short term visitors or contractors working at a property.

Ecology and gardens

Trees feature heavily in the gardens of the Ridgemount area, many fully grown and of significant height. Keeping them untouched by development is a priority for the area.

Each tree supports wildlife, has a unique microclimate, and the wide range of species, as exists in the area, supports bio diversity[2].

Designation of gardens as brownfield sites was assumed and Southampton City Council's survey response included the perception that it was an active threat, a detrimental impact on local character and that this imbalance needs to be rectified[3]. The letter from the Chief Planning Officer in Jan 2010 allows Councils to consider a policy of no development on gardens or to restrict the type and place of developments. We urge the LPA to support a positive restriction on the Ridgemount area, of no further plot splitting and no replacing of a single house with many, in line with the residents wishes.

Now that gardens are no longer treated as previously developed land and have been recognized as important amenity space and therefore should not be built on, there are no sites available for development in the Ridgemount area other than replacement on a one for one basis.

Within the Ridgemount area there are at least two species of owl, buzzards and kites, plus many species of smaller birds. Our mammal wild populations include fallow deer through foxes to bats, field mice and many others. The deer come from the woods across the golf course and into the gardens, a true wildlife corridor.

Therefore the Ridgemount Area wish to conserve the mature gardens, many of which have wild areas, with fully grown native trees, in order to keep this wildlife asset.

Conclusion

The planning minister Greg Clark has scrapped the minimum density target handing power back to local communities to decide what new homes are best for their area.

Gardens are no longer treated as previously developed land and have been recognized as important amenity space.

The Localism act states that ‘With specific regard to housing, a Neighbourhood plan would be able to identify specific site or broad location, specify the form, size, type and design of new housing’ This neighbourhood plan identifies these parameters and sets out the residents requirements.

This is supported by the Southampton Core Strategy which identifies the need for a balanced housing stock. Most of Southampton is developed with fairly high density housing suburbs with very few low density suburbs remaining. The existing low density character and housing stock in the area covered by The Ridgemount Area Residents Association continues to satisfy this need for larger executive family homes and gardens and supports the council’s ambition to encourage more business people to live and work in the city. The residents are looking to the LPA to protect this area that is under threat from infill developments on important garden amenity space by adopting this document and strengthening it with enforceable policies where this document is not robust enough.

Justification and notes/references

The Core Strategy make several mentions of the need to encourage the building and retention of family housing and It is based on the detailed work of the housing mix Background Paper, which highlights the needs for new family housing, to retain existing family housing, ensuring an adequate range of larger properties and the influence of the established character and density of the neighbourhood.

This neighbourhood plan is well aligned to both the previous development policy for this immediate area and the Core Strategy. The Ridgemount area comes into the key principles of the mature suburbs in the north of the area with already identified areas for housing development, with no need for further densification within the Ridgemount Area. The Core strategy and the Housing Mix background paper state in many places of the need for family housing and how families move for more space. In particular larger homes are desired and houses which are suitable for the executives of the business that will create the economic growth for Southampton. Section 7.1.2 emphasizes that families are seeking accommodation outside of Southampton City in the 'travel to work' areas thus creating more traffic pressure and reducing the wealth and make up of the city. Ridgemount Area is an example where the housing stock is a good match to the executives of growth business, otherwise areas such as Chilworth in Test Valley or Hiltingbury in Eastleigh will house these senior managers who then travel to work by car through Bassett. So Bassett would get the traffic pollution and Southampton does not get the incoming wealth. Similarly the Lloyds Register Centre in the University district is a good example of an incoming business where the key incoming staff will want high quality accommodation preferably (for sustainability reasons) within walking distance of the Centre. Given the Ridgemount Area satisfies this crucial need then the emphasis must be of retaining the present character and style. The development within the Ridgemount Area is that of one-off individual plots, where we can point to previousplanning decisions, both acceptances and rejections of what is appropriate development. [4] In general sites are only accepted where they are clearly separate plots available with single dwellings and rejected where the density is too high to match the area or the proposed dwelling would be too intrusive for the street. The latter was rejected under the present core strategy in April 11 and amply demonstrates that the limited and selective development, that the residents require, totally aligns to the Core Strategy of protecting and enhancing the character of existing neighbourhoods.

The overall character of the area should be preserved, in that some plots are physically impossible to develop. as a consequence of the plot shapes (limited road access), many established trees with TPOs, very steep slopes (preventing economic foundations, water courses (Holly Brook for example, and its tributaries) and hence are totally unsuited to further density of houses. Most houses have a dwelling to plot size of 15-20%. Therefore to match the style of the area plots on the opposite side of each road or neighbours should also have similar densities, not be a complete contrast.

The localism act and the National planning policy framework document (NPPFD) gives power to local communities to decide how their areas are developed.

The LPA recognize the density requirement of the core strategy which states 35 to 50 houses per hectare will be in the Bassett area as a whole and this allows for higher and lower densities in specific areas to protect Character and amenity that residents currently have.

The area covered by The Ridgemount Area Residents Association has been identified by the LPA as providing the need for executive family homes and should be kept in line with the current density level.

Extract taken from the new Planning policy framework document 2012

58. Local and neighbourhood plans should develop robust and comprehensive Policies that set out the quality of development that will be expected for the area. Such policies should be based on stated objectives for the future of the area and an understanding and evaluation of its defining characteristics.

Planning policies and decisions should aim to ensure that developments: