LUC provided expert witness services at an inquiry into Dunsfold Park earlier this month to examine a proposal for the first planned village in Surrey for over a century. LUC provided expert witness services in relation to landscape and visual impacts as well as a written statement on ecology.

The project aims to transform the site into a 21st century example of sustainable rural development creating an attractive, pedestrian-friendly place to live and work, set within significant areas of public open space and with facilities for recreation, shopping and leisure.

LUC has been advising the site owners for a number of years to bring forward a sustainable settlement in this location. Our landscape and EIA specialists worked alongside Pollard Thomas Edwards architects, the design process hand in hand with the EIA, to deliver a successful scheme. We submitted the outline planning application in December 2015 and, although Waverley Borough Council resolved to grant planning permission in support of the Officer’s recommendation, the proposal was called in by the Secretary of State.

With housing high on the political agenda and increased pressure on landscapes, LUC’s landscape planners are advising developers and local planning authorities alike to help them identify the most sustainable sites for development and make the best use of land.

In the last quarter we have provided advice on potential housing sites across the UK, including Bracknell Forest, Hinckley and Bosworth, Sevenoaks District, Tunbridge Wells, Plymouth City, Dartmoor National Park, Lake District National Park and North Warwickshire and East Lothian to provide advice on potential housing sites. This includes an appraisal of the broad area of search for England’s most northerly Garden Village in Carlisle.