Sunnyside Wellness Village, Bridgend

PROJECTS

Sunnyside Wellness Village, Bridgend

Project: 59 affordable homes and medical centre (Wellness Village)
Location: Bridgend, Wales
Client: Linc Cymru Housing Association, in partnership with Cwm Tag Morgannwg Health Board and Bridgend Council
Services: Transport Planning
Value: £23m

What it was trying to achieve

A former council offices and magistrates court site in Bridgend was developed as Wales’ first Wellness Village: 59 affordable homes including six supported homes for people with physical and learning disabilities and ten transition flats for those leaving care or supported accommodation, alongside a medical centre accommodating the merger of four local GP surgeries. The development was a partnership between Linc Cymru Housing Association, the Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board and Bridgend Council. National funding deadlines were live throughout the planning process.

What made it complex

Transport design for a community including residents with physical and learning disabilities and visual impairment raised requirements that standard highway guidance does not cover. A level-surface streetscape without kerbs was the appropriate accessibility response, but the Local Highway Authority’s adoption specifications required kerbs as demarcation between pedestrian and vehicle space. Both requirements had to be met simultaneously. The medical centre added further complexity: ambulance access, parking for four merged GP surgeries, refuse and delivery movements, and concerns from nearby residents about additional traffic. The council considered the proposed parking insufficient. All of this had to be resolved within a planning timetable anchored to a funding deadline.

What it produced

Planning was approved and funding secured within the required deadline. The Wellness Village was built and became operational. The level-surface streetscape design was adopted by the council. The transport assessment for the medical centre addressed the parking and access concerns that had been raised, enabling the merger of four GP surgeries to proceed as part of the development.

How we thought about it

We fed transport thinking into the masterplanning process from an early stage rather than being appointed once the layout was determined. We drew on RNIB Design for Everyone guidance alongside Local Highway Authority specifications, working through the level-surface question: how a design that met the accessibility needs of the residents could also satisfy the safety and adoption requirements of the highway authority. We modelled traffic generation carefully, accounting for ambulance access, refuse, deliveries and patient journeys, and built the evidence for the parking provision proposed. The negotiations between the competing design requirements were extensive and had to be held together rather than resolved separately for the scheme to work.

Calibro’s logical approach to seeing constraints as an opportunity assists in achieving a desirable solution that is communicated clearly and robustly to ensure the projects are driven forward successfully.

Andy Cattermole

Redrow Homes PLC

Senior Planning Manager