Terence O’Rourke has secured planning permissions for the Archers Gate and King’s Gate residential developments to the south of Amesbury in Wiltshire. As part of our role we lead environmental impact assessment (EIA) coordination for both developments. Archers Gate comprises 550 dwellings, a link road, a primary school and public open space, while King’s Gate comprised a further 1,300 dwellings, a second primary school, a country park and other public open space over several phases.
In addition to coordinating the EIA teams and liaising with consultees, we drafted the environmental statements, undertook the assessments of socio-economic, cultural heritage (designated assets), land use, landscape and visual and natural heritage effects. We also prepared codes of construction practice and waste audits to accompany the planning applications. Our extensive EIA coordination experience was important in ensuring the assessments of early phases provided robust but proportionate consideration of potential cumulative effects with later phases.
We worked pro-actively with our in house designers on environmental constraints and opportunities throughout the masterplanning process, which was crucial in avoiding the potential for adverse effects on the setting of the nearby Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. We also identified a number of mitigation measures to ensure there would be no significant effects on the internationally designated River Avon, to the west of the site. This involvement helped to ensure that no objections to the planning applications were received from key heritage and ecological consultees.
The Archers Gate development is now completed and occupied. Planning permission for the last phase of King’s Gate was granted in February 2017 and construction works on earlier phases are ongoing.
