There is no point in setting a radical agenda if it cannot be secured. An artist’s impression is one thing but it only has meaning if it has integrity. There is little value in building a great new housing development if there is no means in place to engender civic pride and to regulate. The aim here is to deliver the conservation areas of the future and these merit well explained and justified control.
One way to ensure a faithful delivery is to establish a relationship with like minded housebuilders who are capable and experienced in matching a landowner’s aspirations; hence the promotion of the schemes by The Ashfield Partnership.
A second step taken by The Ashfield Estate is to adopt an enduring position to promote and manage the Luzborough Stipulations helping to set up a Residents’ Association or other body so that, in time, the scheme can become self governing. The important element here is to establish the right legal framework from the outset and for the future. When construction is complete then the housebuilders’ role will have concluded and it will be for the Ashfield Estate to take matters forward.
The third component is in following both tradition and contemporary practice aiming for schemes which prove to be successful by being popular. It would be brave to anticipate how technology might inform changes in living patterns or how the environmental challenge might best be addressed, but much effort has been made to plan new communities which are not dependent on motor cars. The advent of battery powered vehicles may permit a change of emphasis. Even then there is no doubt that better neighbourhoods and healthier places are likely to be those which favour pedestrians and bicycles.
If you can walk out of your front door in the morning, perhaps dropping children at school, go to work, do some shopping at lunchtime, and return to take part in recreation, social, or cultural activity without using a vehicle then life might well be a more rewarding experience.
Sustainable living is about how we choose to live our lives. The question is whether new development affords the ability to make those choices. In order to secure that vision the aim is to settle a Masterplan which anchors decision making through the planning process.
Now nearing completion, Luzborough is the first example of The Partnership housebuilders responding to the Estate's ambitions to do things differently.
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Whitenap is the largest of the three sites on The Ashfield Estate, comprising of up to 1300 new homes
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Mountbatten Park is a residential development of around 300 new homes (including some workspace) situated in North Baddesley in Hampshire, just over 3 miles from the town of Romsey.
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