3. Community Input
Support
Draft Sawston Village Design Statement SPD
Representation ID: 167700
Received: 17/05/2019
Respondent: Cllr David Bard
An accurate description of the process.
An accurate description of the process.
Comment
Draft Sawston Village Design Statement SPD
Representation ID: 167713
Received: 29/05/2019
Respondent: Cllr Brian Milnes
I challenge the supposition that Sawston has any truly special characteristics. The few and far between that are unique don't make the village significant.
I further challenge the reactionary assumptions that multiple storey buildings are innately bad and that the village entrances are precious.
This section makes a number of statements that I question.
1. That the village has a "unique character"
Whereas there are a few notable buildings left within the village, and a few styles e.g. of terrace housing remain, largely the village is predominantly a small dormitory town consisting primarily of bland housing estates.
The report acknowledges that a majority of the most characterful High Street buildings were demolished and replaced with a variety of modern buildings.
Sawston Hall is repeatedly mentioned but is a private property and is effectively invisible other than during an annual event. If it is not visible/accessible what is its impact on the ambience of the village?
2. "Achieving density without building multiple storeys"
I questioned Parish Councillor David Bard's assertion that Terrace housing could provide similar density to apartment blocks. He seemed to be referring to work done by the Policy Exchange in 2013 which talked specifically of Tower blocks.
The Create Streets initiative which borrowed its name and followed http://dev.createstreets.com/ uses 3, 4 and 5 storey housing as alternatives.
Clearly, it is not possible to have the same density with two storey terrace houses as with multiple storey housing on the same footprint. And being surrounded by Green Belt means little available land on which to build.
The guide also makes little reference to the 3 and 4 storey buildings already existing in the village.
3. There is a suggestion that land is available "close to the High Street" and on "vacant lots on existing estates" but does not identify or quantify them. (Questioning Cllrs Bard and Martin I was offered the plot behind the Cambridge Building Society as a single example.)
4. "Preservation of the landscape setting of Sawston." This suggests that there is some innate or inherent value in the current layout of the village, when, its development has been piecemeal and fragmented. Over the years developers have been able to build various estates around the village which now dominate and define it, and what it looks like at its edges. There is not some extant, sacrosanct and beautifully designed village entrance code. But instead a randomly arising set of housing and commercial developments defining all entrances to the village and its setting within it.