The Noble Consultancy were appointed to provide architectural, planning and landscaping services on behalf of developer Ptarmigan Land, Bewley Homes & FA Secretts Ltd.

The approved mixed-use development is proposed to facilitate the relocation and expansion of the existing Secretts Farm Shop to meet the future needs of the business. In doing so, the relocation of the farm shop and associated agricultural activities will now fulfil the requirements of the draft mixed-use allocation on this site, to provide the following:

• Mix of new housing to meet local demand
• New farm shop
• Conversion of existing farm shop buildings to new business premises
• Sports pitches and changing facilities for local football team
• New Health Hub
• Off-site SANG
• Provision of new landscaped open space
• New pedestrian & cycle links
• New access & highway upgrades

There were many facets to the development that required a sensitive approach in terms of design and required imaginative solutions and collaborative working between all consultants and stakeholders. Considerations were proximity to the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), Listed Buildings and local businesses. Perhaps the most important design consideration was ensuring the new farm shop and other uses were connected visually rather than act as two separate developments. This was achieved by creating an attractive linear park with new and improved duck ponds to encourage pedestrian connectivity.

The 4th generation family business, established in 1937, forms a major part of village life. This was evident as hundreds of locals turned up to the two-day consultation event to view the proposals and have their say. Highways issues were fervently made clear by those who attended, and concerns were allayed when the tangible engineering and design solutions were tabled, including a newly configured primary access in the form of a new ‘village hub’ gateway feature, as well as a dedicated new access to the new farm shop and several other local highway improvements.

As part of the consultation process and evolution of design, draft proposals were put before a Design Review Panel who were invited to critically evaluate all aspects of the development. Comments were then fed into the final designs.

An extensive network of publicly accessible green open space is proposed with a variety of uses, including sports pitches, play facilities, green corridors with pedestrian and cycle links, formal and informal spaces. Robust tree planting corridors were also proposed along the northern and eastern edges of the site to minimise the impact of the built form on the landscape setting of the wider countryside. The landscape strategy celebrates the long heritage of food production across the site through a planting scheme abundant with food themed plants such as a variety of fruit trees throughout the development and within the community orchard. This will encourage residents to pick their own fruit while offering ecological benefits.

Kudos goes to members of the planning team who were as always at hand to respond to last minute planning requests to get the project over the line. A big thanks also to all other consultants for their input.

Approved plans can be viewed by following the link below to Waverley Borough Council’s planning website:

https://planning360.waverley.gov.uk:4443/planning/search-applications?civica.query.FullTextSearch=WA%2F2022%2F02194#VIEW?RefType=GFPlanning&KeyNo=537818&KeyText=Subject