Evans Jones appointed to manage rugby club planning application

• Posted by Karyn Middleton on 12th May ’08 at 15:54 BST
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Evans Jones LLP was appointed in October 2007 by Hemel Hempstead Amateur Rugby League Football Club and Slick Developments Limited to manage the preparation of the planning application for a new 700 seat stadium, changing rooms, conference facilities and multi use games area at Pennine Way, Hemel Hempstead.

Hemel Hempstead Amateur Rugby League Football Club (also known as Hemel Stags) First XIII have fixtures with teams nationwide playing in the Co-operative Rugby League Conference National and the Northern Rail Cup. The rugby club′s rapidly developing profile in recent years and well supported youth development rugby programme, run in association with local schools, urgently called for new training and playing facilities.

The Brief

Evans Jones initial remit was to consult with the local authority and to prepare and manage the planning application submission. The requirement for the development to meet the needs of a range of users (the rugby club and general public), together with the size of the application, the site′s suburban location on a pocket of green open space (owned by the local authority), and restricted vehicular access, triggered the need for additional supplementary information to support the planning application.

Due to these additional requirements Evans Jones remit expanded, involving the consultation and appointment of specialist consultants (e.g. Highways, Archaeological and Flood Risk) to carry out assessments and devise appropriate measures to create an appropriate design solution.

The Challenge

The principle of a new stadium and associated facilities at the Pennine Way site was allocated in the Local Authority′s Local Development Plan. A previous application for a similar scheme had also been approved in 1998, however due to excessive financial contributions required through the S106 Agreement the scheme was deemed unviable.

The subsequent challenge faced by Evans Jones was to prepare a scheme to meet the requirements of the local authority, Sport England and the rugby club while negotiating appropriate S106 Contributions. This involved in-depth discussions with the local authority′s planning, highways, legal, leisure and recreation departments at pre-application stage to ensure the scheme was viable in all respects.

The planning application also had to be supported by a business plan setting out how the club anticipated to evolve over a 5–10 year period, including details of fixtures and spectator numbers to provide comfort to the local authority on future potential impact from the development on the surrounding area.

The agreed S106 Contributions included a commitment by the club to resurface the public car park that served the facility, financial contributions towards a new signage strategy along local cycle and pedestrian routes, and a management plan to deal with match day traffic.

Benefits Achieved

The final design worked within the constraints of the site while making effective use of space. In particular the benefits included:

• Design that related well to surrounding built forms
• Layout that provided sufficient car and coach parking, and turning areas
• Respected surrounding natural habitats (e.g. through use of floodlight cowling measures)
• Layout that retained pedestrian connections in and around the site
• Appropriate levels of security and natural surveillance
• Supported the rugby club′s ethos of encouraging everyone to participate in sport through provision of a facility to benefit the community as a whole.

“Working in partnership with the local authority planning, highways, leisure and legal departments to address matters at pre-application stage and the overall management by Evans Jones has been fundamental to the success of this project.”

Bob Brown, Club Chairman

Summary

The nature of the rugby club′s evolving profile, and hence uncertainty in terms of the projected number of spectators, together with the application site being owned by the local authority and the requirements of a diverse range of users prompted working in partnership with the rugby club, local authority, Sport England and specialist consultants to prepare a scheme that met the requirements of all users. The commitments made at pre-application stage were instrumental to the successful outcome of this planning application.

For further information, please contact David Jones on 01242 531412 or david.jones@evansjones.co.uk.