| Links | Contact Us | Historic Spine | Members Login | Members Forum | Email the Society |
 |
|
You are here  Home |
.jpg) |
| Latest News |
| Next Members Meeting - Monday 15 February, starting at the earlier time of 6.15pm. |
 |
Leonora Rozee OBE BA(Hons) MRTPI One of the Foremost Town Planners of our day will tell the Stratford Society that New Buildings in our area should reflect Stratfords's Distinctive Character. |
|
As the Deputy Chief Executive of the Planning Inspectorate, Leonora Rozee OBE BA(Hons) MRTPI was Professional Head of the inspectors who preside over public inquiries into planning appeals and development plans throughout England and Wales. She was also instrumental in evolving the new development plan system which now applies to building in England and Wales. On retirement last year, she joined the Executive Board and General Assembly of the Royal Town Planning Institute. She also became President of the Planning Summer School and Chair of a joint Planning Inspectorate/National Forum study into "Mediation in Planning", as well as a Visiting Professor to the School of Architecture, Landscape and Planning at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and an external examiner at University College London.Meet this very distinguished speaker on
|
| Please come promptly to be sure of getting a seat. The meeting will be open to non members and is likely to attract widespread interest. As usual, the venue will be the Falcon Hotel, Chapel Street, Stratford-upon-Avon. Free car parking is available on nearby streets after 6.00pm. |
| November 2009 THE HISTORIC SPINE A proposal for upgrading selected Buildings & Shop-fronts (This is pdf 35MB) |
November 2009 News Update Featuring Society Leads the way on housing design and Historic Spine action group's first meeting |
Heritage Open Days September 2009 The Changing Face of Stratford |
| WORKSHOP ON HOUSING DESIGN |
Call for a 'design champion' to ensure better developments |
| STRATFORD needs a 'design champion' if future developments around the town are to be better designed, of high quality and the sort of places where people actually want to live. That's the message from Sir Brian Follett, president of the Stratford Society, speaking at last week's workshop on housing design at the Shakespeare Centre. Sir Brian told the Herald: "Design could be a lot better in Stratford. Now we're seemg a lot of inner city design we have an opportunity for Stratford District Council to think about design of buildings in the next wave of housing development-as that is now likely to happen.We would like the council to appoint a design champion. Such a person could try and give leadership and discipline to the whole thing, rather than being reactive all the time. They could go out and learn from other towns." The society - which aims to protect the heritage of Stratford-organised the event for plauners, local councillors and developers to examine ways of improving the design of future neighbourhoods round the town. Seventy delegates attended. Sir Brian added: "We think that the design guidelines in the district need looking at and deciding whether they are appropriate. Eight hundred new homes in Shottery -is a perfect example of where you would need the distnct council to provide genuine leadership rather than be led by the needs of the developer. The town and the district should be able to expect good planning and design." The idea was immediately taken up by Cllr Les Topham (Cons, Samboume), who said he would, as leader of the district council, do everything to ensure that all future housing design was compatible with the town's 'special environment'. The idea was immediately taken up by Cllr Les Topham (Cons, Samboume), who said he would, as leader of the district council, do everything to ensure that all future housing design was compatible with the town's 'special environment'. |
Cllr George Atkinson (Cons, Tanworth), the council's portfolio holder for plauning, also promised to take the proposal of a designated design champion further. James Stevens, strategic planner for the Home Builders Federation, said that ambitious designs introduced during a period of prosperity could not be maintained during a recession. "Good design comes well down the list of a purchaser's priorities-after price, number of bedrooms and location-and doesn't necessarily translate into a higher selling price. Insistence on highly demanding design criteria will shrink development margins and the contribution developers can make to the community." Simon Payne, director of environment and planning for Cambridge City Council and a former head of planning services at Stratford District Council, disagreed with this view and said that objections could be overcome by strong leader ship. Presenting a case study of Accordia's award winning contemporary scheme in Cambridge, he said that the portfolio holder for planning there had simply refused to accept 'mediocre design' and said she would keep on rejecting the proposals until they were 'worthy of great city'. This attitude, said Mr Payne, should be repeated in Stratford. The recipe for success included: * A design brief involving the local community to define what needs to be protected to maintain the character and quality of the site and its surroundings. * Complete commitment of councillors and officers to the necessity for good design, high quality build and a sound maintenance regime. * Awareness of environmental change and measures to avoid such disasters as flooding. *Providing good counections to reduce dependence on the car. His recommendations were taken on board in the summing-up by Pat Reid, district council head of planning services. |
| The Herald 5th November 2009 |
| Click Here | for a copy of the Society Full Report on the Housing Design Workshop |
 |
Photographs from the workshop - courtesy of Ian Bailey |
| VISION OF A WELL DESIGNED, UNCLUTTERED TOWN CENTRE |
| An uncluttered, well designed,high quality town centre is the vision laid down by a new group of Stratford's major organisations which had it's first meeting at the town hall last week. The Historic Spine Action Group has been set up by the Stratford Society in response to the enthusiastic endorsement of the idea by residents and businesses at a joint meeting with the Town Management Partnership in July. Chaired by Dr Kevin Bond, who is also vice'chairman of the society, the group includes the mayor, Cllr Jenny Fradgley, Dr Diana Owen, director of the Shakesoeare Birthplace Trust, Richard eggington, chief executive of Stratford Town Trust, Peter Wilson, RSC transformation project director, Gary Barnes, chief executive Stratford Town Management Partnership, and Martyn Luscombe, chairman of Stratford Voice. Other permanent members include representatives of all three local councils and at future meetings other contributions will be sought from representatives of the wider community. "Our aim is to have clear, simple but demanding standards for the historic spine," Dr Bond told the meeting on Thursday. "We should engage with local authorities and owners and managers of businesses in order to declutter the environment and improve the standard of design and the quality and materials used on non-listed buildings so that they complement the many Grade 1 and Grade 2 historic buildings along the route. There are powers in place and we must press for them to be used." Hurdles One of the group's first hurdles will be what they see as the lack of enthusiasm from the district and couty councils for the ARUP proposals for the walkable core, which include a one-way system down Sheep Street and up Chapel Lane. David Pywell, director of World Class Stratford, told the meeting that these proposals were not radical and could produce a modest improvement to the pedestrian experience but they could not even go out to consultation without agreement from the county council. The district and county councils had both asked for a more in-depth briefing before going to public consultation and a further meeting of council members was to be held in November. In response, Dr Bond said: "We must be openminded. Giving priority to pedestrians need not be traumatic - we do close roads in this town for mayoral events, the mop and Christmas fairs, but closure was not structured. No-one will ever know how useful the walkable core proposals could be unless they are consulted on, so we as a group should look for aspects that could be trialled and then press for consultation and feed back. "We support a change to the hours of loading and unloading of delivery vehicles and will press for the earliest possible implementation. This would be one of the least expensive and most effective contributions to easier movement around the town." "The key is to consult widely on every stage and insist on maximum communication. We aim to have an open meeting in due course so that everyone can have a say." The Herald 15th October 2009 |
 |
| Chairman's Message |
Welcome to the Stratford Society’s website. We are the Civic Trust for this world famous market town and our aim is to help preserve and maintain the character and appearance of Stratford-upon-Avon. The Society recently celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2006.
This website has recently been revised and extended and it now includes a wealth of information about the Society. I hope you will spend a few moments browsing the webpages, and I particularly commend the new section on Planning Applications. Monitoring development proposals in the town is one of our key tasks, and this new page will keep people informed of the work of our Planning Group. Members can now access their own section of the site with a login facility which gives additional information about our activities and meetings. If any member has difficulty gaining access to this section EMAIL info@stratfordsociety.co.uk for your username and password. The standing and reputation of the Society in the town is high. We try to take a pro-active and positive approach on many issues. Often we are referred to as ‘the influential Stratford Society’ and we try to bring a professional and proactive approach to issues of local importance. We are not a one dimensional pressure group opposing some type of development. We take on a wide range of activities in order to improve the quality of life in our town. This varied role of the Society also includes the following –
We think that the work carried out by the Society for the town is important, so please join us if you would like to help. The subscription is modest and application forms are available in the Membership section of this site. We hope to hear from you. |
|
Affiliated Organisations |
 |
 |
 |
Corporate Sponsor Links |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Some of the information on this site is displayed via a download to Adobe Acrobat Reader. |
|
