North West Bicester

Last updated

North West Bicester (NW Bicester) is one of four eco-towns that were originally given the green light by the government in 2009 to act as showcases for environmentally sustainable communities. It will be a true zero carbon development on the edge of Bicester, Oxfordshire, through measures including renewable energy, sustainable travel options and homes with high energy efficiency ratings. In April 2011, the coalition government announced that only NW Bicester would actually be built to the originally proposed standards under the government’s Eco Town Planning Policy Statement 1, which is often referred to as the Eco Town PPS.

Contents

The development: Masterplan and Exemplar Phase

Masterplan: NW Bicester is a proposed 6,000-home development [1] to extend Bicester onto agricultural land to the north-west of the town. Plans for the 1,000 acre site include 40% green open space, a nature reserve and country park; three local centres comprising retail, leisure, nurseries, a health centre and community halls. The plans also include one secondary school, three new primary schools and space for business. There will be links to Bicester through footpaths, cycle-ways and public transport connections.

Exemplar: The first phase of the development was granted planning consent in principle in August 2011 by Cherwell District Council. The detailed plans were approved in August 2012. The application site is just over 51 acres to the north of Bicester adjoining the B4100 on its eastern side and wraps around Home Farm, Caversfield. The most southerly part of the site is approximately 120 metres north of the existing extent of development at Bicester (Bure Park). The approved plans include 393 homes and 40% green open space. The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has invested £6m to build 119 affordable homes, the remaining 274 homes will be for private sale. The plans include a combined heat and power energy centre, a nursery of up to 350 square metres, community centre of up to 350 square metres and three retail units of up to 770 square metres. Permission was also granted for an eco-business centre of up to 1,800 square metres (use class B1), office accommodation of up to 1,100 square metres (use class B1), an “eco-pub” of up to 190 square metres (use class A4), and a primary school site measuring up to 1.34 hectares. Community space will incorporate communal barbecue areas, herb boxes and allotments.[ citation needed ]

Eco-measures

The homes will be built to true zero carbon standards, measuring regulated and unregulated energy. Plans include zero waste to landfill during construction. Solar photovoltaic panels are planned for all residential and non-residential buildings, all of which will feature significant levels of insulation and will be built to code level 5 for sustainable homes. Additional energy is to be provided from an energy centre containing a gas-fired combined heat and power system. The Exemplar phase is a net provider of energy, supplying excess energy generated back to the national grid. Real time information about the homes solar PV energy generation, energy consumption and costs, and water usage will be communicated in every home via a tablet device.

The combined residential solar array will be the biggest in the UK, with an average of 34m2 solar PV per roof. Homes will include triple glazing, rainwater harvesting and heat and hot water provided from the CHP via a network of underground pipes. Homes have been designed to cope with climate change peaks of up to 10 degrees Celsius.[ citation needed ]

Transport

NW Bicester has a target to reduce local car journeys from 67.5% to 50% by 2026. A number of features have been incorporated to encourage residents to adopt more sustainable modes of travel. The planning conditions oblige a community bus service from the date of the first occupation, half-hourly bus service once the 50th home is occupied and a 15-minute service after the 200th. A communal car club will be available for residents to access and book. Real time bus information and the availability of the car club will be visible in every home via a tablet device.

In addition, communal electric car charging points will be accessible on site and available to every home within the first two years of occupation, cycle stores will come as standard for each home and the development will have segregated cycle-ways and pedestrian routes linking directly into the town’s existing network.

Improvements to Junction 10 of the M40 have also been designed to support NW Bicester and improve links with Silverstone and Brackley. The improvements are due to start in 2015 and will cost around £1.3 million. Work will involve replacing the current southbound entry slip road and widening the A43 southbound.[ citation needed ]

Construction

The Exemplar will be constructed in four main phases. Pre-construction works [2] commenced in April 2014. The fourth phase of the development is due to be completed in 2018.

Developer and partners

The lead developer on NW Bicester is A2Dominion who appointed Willmott Dixon as its principal contractor for the first phase of the Exemplar. A2Dominion, working in partnership with Cherwell District Council, has appointed expert consultants including Silver DCC Limited (Client Representative), Bioregional, Farrells, Barton Willmore, SQW Consultants, Hyder Consulting, PRP Architects and Oxford Brookes University to help deliver the project.[ citation needed ]

Community governance

Cherwell District Council and A2Dominion are working on plans for a community-led governance structure that will offer residents and businesses the opportunity to work together to make decisions about the issues that affect their immediate area.[ citation needed ]

Jobs and business

A2Dominion and Willmott Dixon are working together to achieve 20% local labour on site during construction. A minimum of ten apprenticeships will be made available over the five year construction of the Exemplar.

Local suppliers and sub-contractors are able to register an interest to be involved in the delivery of the scheme.[ citation needed ]

Green Space / Biodiversity

The Exemplar phase will feature 40% green space, specially designed cycle and pedestrian routes and all garages will have meadow turf roofs.

Many of the existing hedgerows at the site will be kept and incorporated into the eco town design and proposals feature a network of sustainable wildlife corridors and ponds.

In December 2013, A2Dominion purchased 51 acres from Altitude Real Estate LLP which makes up the Exemplar development site currently under construction.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bicester</span> Human settlement in England

Bicester is a historical market town, garden town, and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in Southern England that also comprises an eco town at North-East Bicester and self-build village at Graven Hill. Its local market continues to thrive and is now located on Sheep Street, a very wide pedestrian zone in the conservation area of the town. Bicester is also known for Bicester Village, a nearby shopping centre selling discounted branded clothing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BedZED</span> Housing development in Hackbridge, London

Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) is an environmentally friendly housing development in Hackbridge, London, England. It is in the London Borough of Sutton, 2 miles (3 km) north-east of the town of Sutton itself. Designed to create zero carbon emissions, it was the first large scale community to do so.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eco-industrial park</span>

An eco-industrial park (EIP) is an industrial park in which businesses cooperate with each other and with the local community in an attempt to reduce waste and pollution, efficiently share resources, and help achieve sustainable development, with the intention of increasing economic gains and improving environmental quality. An EIP may also be planned, designed, and built in such a way that it makes it easier for businesses to co-operate, and that results in a more financially sound, environmentally friendly project for the developer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earthship</span> Style of architecture that uses native materials and upcycled materials to build homes.

An Earthship is a style of architecture developed in the late 20th century to early 21st century by architect Michael Reynolds. Earthships are designed to behave as passive solar earth shelters made of both natural and upcycled materials such as earth-packed tires. Earthships may feature a variety of amenities and aesthetics, and are designed to withstand the extreme temperatures of a desert, managing to stay close to 70 °F (21 °C) regardless of outside weather conditions. Earthship communities were originally built in the desert of northern New Mexico, near the Rio Grande, and the style has spread to small pockets of communities around the globe, in some cases in spite of legal opposition to its construction and adoption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craik Sustainable Living Project</span> Nonprofit organization in Canada

The Craik Sustainable Living Project (CSLP) is a nonprofit organization for sustainable development that aims to advance the local use of more ecologically sound technologies and ways of living in rural Saskatchewan, Canada. The four key components of the project are the eco-centre, outreach and education programs, community action, and the ecovillage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zero-energy building</span> Energy efficiency standard for buildings

A Zero Energy Building (ZEB), also known as a Net Zero Energy (NZE) building, is a building with net zero energy consumption, meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site or in other definitions by renewable energy sources offsite, using technology such as heat pumps, high efficiency windows and insulation, and solar panels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable city</span> City designed with consideration for social, economic, environmental impact

The sustainable city, eco-city, or green city is a city designed with consideration for social, economic, environmental impact, and resilient habitat for existing populations, without compromising the ability of future generations to experience the same. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 defines sustainable cities as those that are dedicated to achieving green sustainability, social sustainability and economic sustainability. They are committed to doing so by enabling opportunities for all through a design focused on inclusivity as well as maintaining a sustainable economic growth. The focus also includes minimizing required inputs of energy, water, and food, and drastically reducing waste, output of heat, air pollution – CO2, methane, and water pollution. Richard Register first coined the term ecocity in his 1987 book Ecocity Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future, where he offers innovative city planning solutions that would work anywhere. Other leading figures who envisioned sustainable cities are architect Paul F Downton, who later founded the company Ecopolis Pty Ltd, as well as authors Timothy Beatley and Steffen Lehmann, who have written extensively on the subject. The field of industrial ecology is sometimes used in planning these cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hackbridge</span> Human settlement in England

Hackbridge is a suburb in the London Borough of Sutton, south-west London, just over two miles north-east of the town of Sutton itself. It is 8.8 miles (15 km) south-west of Charing Cross.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New England Quarter</span> Mixed-use development in Brighton and Hove, England

The New England Quarter is a mixed-use development in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It was built between 2004 and 2008 on the largest brownfield site in the city, adjacent to Brighton railway station. Most parts of the scheme have been finished, but other sections are still being built and one major aspect of the original plan was refused planning permission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northstowe</span>

Northstowe is a new town that will eventually have up to 10,000 homes, with an anticipated population of 24,400 in Cambridgeshire, England, UK. On 1 April 2021 Northstowe became a civil parish, the parish was formed from Longstanton and Oakington and Westwick, with the first town council elected on 6th May of that year. Northstowe has been in development for around 15 years and through varying political administrations. Originally proposed to be "an exemplar of sustainability in the use of renewable energy resources and reducing carbon emissions", Northstowe will still have many exemplar features including a Sustainable Urban Drainage Scheme (SUDS) and bus, bicycle and pedestrian only links. The Northstowe site is five miles (8 km) northwest of the city of Cambridge, between the villages of Oakington and Longstanton. The Northstowe development is being led by Homes England, the successor body to the Homes and Communities Agency, and the developers Gallagher Estates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masdar City</span> First green city in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Masdar City is a planned city project in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. Its core is being built by Masdar, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, with the majority of seed capital provided by the Government of Abu Dhabi. Designed by the British architectural firm Foster and Partners, the city relies on solar energy and other renewable energy sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eco-towns</span> Government-sponsored programme of new towns

Eco-towns are a government-sponsored programme of new towns to be built in England, which are intended to achieve exemplary standards of sustainability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weston Otmoor</span>

Weston Otmoor was a proposed new eco-town in the north of Oxfordshire in countryside to the east of the village of Weston-on-the-Green. It would have been next to Junction 9 of the M40 motorway and 7 miles (11 km) north of Oxford and was one of 15 bids shortlisted by the Department of Communities and Local Government on 3 April 2008. Eco-towns were subject to a consultation by the Department of Communities and Local Government ending 30 June 2008.

The St Austell and Clay Country Eco-town is a plan to build a new town on a cluster of sites owned by mining company Imerys near St Austell, in Cornwall, UK. The plan was given outline government approval in July 2009. The plan would need to gain full planning permission before construction commenced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city</span> Place in Tianjin, Peoples Republic of China China

The Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city is a planned city developed jointly between the governments of China and Singapore. Located in Binhai, the project was deliberately built on "non-arable" land with a "water shortage" to the southeast of Tianjin's urban core, for the declared purpose of serving as a "demonstration that sustainable urbanisation could be achieved despite difficult environmental challenges". The city's site spans an area of 30 square kilometres (12 sq mi), and houses approximately 100,000 people as of April 2019. The city initially planned to house 350,000 people by 2020, but, as of 2021, still aims to house that amount at some point in the future.

The Rackheath Eco-town is a proposal for just over 5,000 houses to be built in the Rackheath area, in Norfolk, within a mile of The Broads National Park. The controversial proposals have been featured on many programmes, including BBC One's Politics Show, BBC One's Look East, ITV's Anglia Tonight and a BBC One Norwich North By-Election Special.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vauban, Freiburg</span>

Vauban is a neighbourhood (Stadtteil) to the south of the town centre in Freiburg, Germany. It was built as "a sustainable model district" on the site of a former French military base named after Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, the 17th century French Marshal who built fortifications in Freiburg while the region was under French rule. Construction began in 1998, and the first two residents arrived in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable urbanism</span> Study of cities and the practices to build them

Sustainable urbanism is both the study of cities and the practices to build them (urbanism), that focuses on promoting their long term viability by reducing consumption, waste and harmful impacts on people and place while enhancing the overall well-being of both people and place. Well-being includes the physical, ecological, economic, social, health and equity factors, among others, that comprise cities and their populations. In the context of contemporary urbanism, the term cities refers to several scales of human settlements from towns to cities, metropolises and mega-city regions that includes their peripheries / suburbs / exurbs. Sustainability is a key component to professional practice in urban planning and urban design along with its related disciplines landscape architecture, architecture, and civil and environmental engineering. Green urbanism and ecological urbanism are other common terms that are similar to sustainable urbanism, however they can be construed as focusing more on the natural environment and ecosystems and less on economic and social aspects. Also related to sustainable urbanism are the practices of land development called Sustainable development, which is the process of physically constructing sustainable buildings, as well as the practices of urban planning called smart growth or growth management, which denote the processes of planning, designing, and building urban settlements that are more sustainable than if they were not planned according to sustainability criteria and principles.

Low-impact development (LID) has been defined as "development which through its low negative environmental impact either enhances or does not significantly diminish environmental quality".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North West Cambridge development</span> University area in Cambridge, England

The North West Cambridge Development is a University of Cambridge site to the north west of Cambridge city centre in England. The development is meant to alleviate overcrowding and rising land prices in Cambridge. The first phase resulted from a £350 million investment by the university. The development opened to the public for the Open Cambridge event on 9 September 2017.

References

  1. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-02-27. Retrieved 2015-02-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Work starts on 6,000-home 'eco-town'". BBC News. April 29, 2014.