The Department of Health has reinforced its position on bed space standards for in-patient accommodation to combat hospital acquired infections.

Bed spaces width is 3.6m to provide suffucient space for clinical activities, meet manual handling requirements including hoists, meet disability access requirements including wheelchairs and provide a suitable environment for privacy and dignity. Refer to HFN 30 - Infection Controlin the Built Environment. The standards relate both to new build and to major reconfiguration schemes.

North Yorkshire Building Control have advised us that from 1 January 2009 a charge of £40.00 plus VAT (£46.00) will be made for applications that are withdrawn or returned.

Please ensure that all required information is correct and complete before submitting any Building Regulations Applications.

Planning Charges effective from June 2008

 Major Development:

 £300 + VAT for site visit, letter and one to one consultation with a senior staff member.  Further work is chargeable at Senior Officer hourly rates.

·         10 Residential units or more

·         Residential development on site of 5ha or more

·         1,000sqm of commercial floor space or more

·         Commercial development on site of 1ha or more

·         Scheme subject to EIA

Other Significant Development Charge:

£300 + VAT

·         Telecommunications development

·         Minerals or waste proposals on sites of 0.5ha or larger

Minor Developments:

£70 + VAT for site visit, letter and consultation with a Planning Officer.  Further work is chargeable at Officer hourly rates.

Schemes of 1-9 dwellings

·         Commercial development resulting in new floor space on sites smaller than 1ha or less than 1,000sqm

·         Changes of use

Commercial Adverts

£50 +VAT

Householder Development

£20 + VAT for written letter

Listed Buildings

Free

The standard fee must be paid in advance of any work commencing on the enquiry.

From 6 April 2008 most council’s will have on their web sites a Local Validation Criteria Manual which applies to all planning applications.  It explains what information is needed at the start of the planning process to help register an application, (different applications require different kinds of information) and this document should be referred to in order to make sure all the necessary information is complete before submitting a planning application.

Additional Fees with regard to discharging of Planning Conditions.

The Local Authorities now have the power to charge £85.00 for each Condition to be discharged.  See link below (Page 30) for details. http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/10.pdf 

The government has appointed Steve Quartermain to its new role of chief planner.

Currently executive director of Hambleton District Council, Quartermain will spearhead the government’s aim to reform the country’s ailing planning system.

One of his primary roles will be helping local councils to address the current skills and workforce shortage.

Quartermain said: ‘I am delighted to take up this role. It is a challenging and exciting time for planners in government, councils and throughout the profession.

‘My aim as chief planner is to make a positive contribution toward ensuring that planning promotes the development of prosperous and vibrant communities.’

Housing minister Caroline Flint added: ‘This is an important appointment. The new chief planner will play a vital role shaping the future of planning.

‘Steve will also help drive forward our ambitions to improve the skills and capacity of planners across the profession,’ she added. 

CABE and the Housing Corporation have announced a new toolkit developed to help housing clients and their design teams demonstrate to planners and funding agencies how their development proposals will meet Building for Life standards.

Building for Life standards have now been adopted by both the Corporation and English Partnerships and increasing numbers of local authorities are now demanding that house builders must fulfil a majority of the 20 Building for Life criteria.

CABE, which developed the toolkit for the Corporation, says the aim is to get all sides using the same design language to assess proposals. The guidance provides examples of design-related material - diagrams, plans, visuals and models - clients can include in grant application tenders or design and access statements.

The Corporation, for its part, says it also regards the toolkit as an assessment tool that will help funding bodies and planners judge whether proposals are up to scratch.

The new toolkit, entitled ‘Evaluating housing principles step by step,’ is available to download for free from http://www.buildingforlife.org/

Having told BSF schools designers to try harder, CABE is prescribing an increased dose of high quality design for the NHS LIFT programme for primary health care centres. The design champion has also called for schemes falling below its ‘excellent’ benchmark for design criteria not to be approved for construction. CABE surveyed a sample of 20 out of 82 LIFT projects completed between 2002 and 2006 and concluded that only 40% of its design criteria - looking at functionality, build quality and impact - scored ‘good’ and better. Only 7% of design criteria actually met its excellent rating. The agency has also called for project delivery teams to be strengthened through more design training and the support of committed client design advisors.

‘The LIFT programme is the NHS’s biggest ever investment in improving and developing premises for primary and community frontline services, so every one of those new buildings should contribute positively to the health and well-being of the local community,’ says Mairi Johnson, CABE’s interim director of enabling. ‘Great schemes such as the Heart of Hounslow and the Plowright Surgery in Norfolk show the kind of quality we want to see routinely.’

Good design features of the buildings surveyed included a single reception point on entering a building, which can offer an early welcome and easy orientation and generous amounts of light and ventilation. Areas of design weakness found in the sample survey include prioritising maintenance over the quality of the patient environment, resulting in the use of materials that create an overly institutional atmosphere.

The briefing paper ‘Assessing design quality in LIFT primary care buildings’ can be found here.

The government published its new Housing and Regeneration Bill today, which will facilitate the prime minister’s housing targets.

One of Gordon Brown’s key policies since coming into power has been his promise to deliver three million new homes by 2020. Today’s Bill will help make this possible, and aid the delivery of the required 240,000 new homes a year by 2016.

The Bill will also create the new Homes and Community Agency, which has seen the merger of English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation.

This new agency will deliver more affordable housing, both social and private, by bringing together the two separate land and housing agencies.

It will also facilitate the government’s plans to provide 10 new eco towns, the locations of which are expected to be unveiled in February.

Richard Vaughan Architects Journal 16 November 2007

CABE is to be named as the official affordable housing quality audit body for England and will begin a programme of assessing the design quality of an ‘extensive sample’ of homes funded by the Housing Corporation.

Corporation chief executive Steve Douglas was due to announce the news at the National Housing Federation Conference this week. The Corporation has entered into a service agreement with CABE to audit the National Affordable Housing Programme where homes are being developed through its partnership funding route.

The move is meant to bolster the Corporation’s new Design and Quality Strategy standards. The Corporation adds that the focus will be on the external environment, rather than internal design or environmental performance, using the Building for Life assessment process.

The ‘draft’ guidance for LPAs represents a coherent approach. It demonstrates how the info required to process an application has ballooned over recent years and the concomitant need for a host of specialist inputs. 

It introduces another delay in the introduction of the national application form which will be obligatory for online and written applications from 6 April 2008 (delayed this time from 1st October 2007). The new form is to be used for any of the following: 

Householder consents 

• Outline and full planning permission and approval of reserved matters 
• Listed Building consent 
• Conservation Area consent 
• Advertisement consent 
• Consent under Tree Preservation Orders 
• Lawful Development Certificates 
• Applications for Prior Notification under the General Permitted 

Development Order 1995 

• Removal or variation of conditions. 

The Guidance provides a different selection of items for each type of application covered by the national form. For a planning application this is the list: 

• Affordable housing statement 
• Air quality 
• Biodiversity survey and report 
• Conservation Area appraisal 
• Daylight/sunlight assessment 
• Environmental Impact Assessment 
• Evidence to accompany applications for town centre uses 
• Existing and proposed car parking and access arrangements 
• Flood risk assessment 
• Foul sewerage assessment 
• Heritage Statement (including historical, archaeological features and 
• Scheduled Ancient Monuments) 
• Impact assessment 
• Land contamination assessment 
• Landfill statement 
• Lighting assessment 
• Noise impact assessment 
• Open space assessment 
• Other plans (3 copies to be supplied unless the application is submitted electronically. All plans and drawings should include: paper size, key dimensions and scale bar indicating a minimum of 0-10 metres) 
• Photographs/photomontages 
• Planning obligations/draft Head(s) of Terms 
• Planning Statement 
• Regeneration statement 
• Statement of Community Involvement 
• Structural Survey 
• Transport assessment 
• (Draft) travel plan 
• Tree survey/Arboricultural implications 
• Utilities statement 
• Ventilation/extraction statement 
• Site waste management plan (including relevant refuse disposal details). 

See www.communities.gov.uk

The above is taken from a circulated letter from the ACA on validation of planning applications. It pays to check with the LPA but the requirements are becoming more onerous.

Pre-application consultation with planning officers which aim at agreement as to what is required to validate the proposed application will be essential in most cases. If the authority insists on charging a fee for these, such fee should be deductible from the [imminently to be further increased] application fee and not be in addition to it. This is a point to be emphasised in responding to local consultations on the proposed local requirements.

New Department of Health guidance asks Trusts to issue clear guidance on the use of mobile phones. Some of their recommendation are here:

Mobile phone use - Do’s and Don’ts

Do’s

• Do – carry out a thorough risk assessment to determine where mobile phones may and may not be used,
• Do – make sure you have a written policy on mobile phone usage, that is readily available for patients and visitors,
• Do – ensure there is a named official to take responsibility for the policy,
• Do – make all staff aware of the contents of the policy and make it easily accessible to them,
• Do – empower staff to challenge the misuse of mobiles on the site,
• Do – update the policy periodically according to changes in the healthcare environment and advances in technology
• Do – clearly designate specific areas where mobile phones can be used,
• Do – make it clear that mobile phone use also includes the use of the camera facility,
• Do – clearly label designated ‘usage and non-usage’ areas with appropriate signage,

Don’ts

• Don’t – allow unfettered mobile phone use throughout the healthcare premises,
• Don’t – allow mobile phone use within 2 metres of sensitive medical equipment (as specified by MHRA)
• Don’t – allow patients and visitors to use the camera phone facility without permission,
• Don’t – subject patients to noisy ringtones, music from inbuilt players, constant “chatter”, as they are recuperating
• Don’t – allow patients and visitors to charge their mobile phones from the hospital’s power supply

Although NHS Trusts must ultimately decide where mobile phones are and are not allowed the Department of Health suggests that their usage, for safety, privacy and dignity and annoyance reasons, are not used in the following areas;

• On wards,
• Intensive therapy units,
• Operating theatres,
• Maternity wards,
• Special care baby units,
• Children’s wards/areas.

The whole guidance paper can be found here

Designing out risk in public spaces is in danger of going too far, argues the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, with a rash of bland and standardised spaces being the inevitable result. The agency that has done so much to restore the importance of quality space alongside quality buildings, now wants designers and their clients to start challenging the risk-averse culture that is becoming entrenched.

In its latest report, Living with risk: promoting better public space, CABE suggests that compensation culture fears may have been overstated; while fear of litigation clearly lies behind the risk-free design response, the reality is that the level of personal injury claims in the UK has been falling. And CABE has attracted some unexpected allies to its new campaign, including the Health and Safety Executive and Zurich Municipal, the largest insurer of local authorities.

Basing its conclusions on case studies and a survey of key organisations, the report suggests there is significant agreement among the key organisations involved that the situation needs to change and that too much professional effort is being devoted to designing out risk, to over-design and to ad hoc design interventions.

The way forward, of course, is for a sensible and proportionate approach to design based on normal behaviour, rather than freak accidents. The report offers a number of principles that can be applied, including the early involvement of all of the main user groups in any risk assessment process.

CABE is preparing a briefing on humanising streets that will look at the balance that can be achieved in shared and civic spaces.

The CABE report even dares to suggest that risk can be celebrated, as long as there is a clear design vision to manage it and any opportunities for positive risk taking are clearly communicated – hope CABE has got its relevant cover in place.

Living with risk: promoting better public space is available as a briefing or in full if you follow this link.

[RIBA PRACTICE BULLETIN - No. 400   - Ref: 32]

 Case Study – Urban Splash @ New Islington
  

• 12 Hectare Site 
• Part of Millenium Housing Sites 
• 1970’s Housing Estate dubbed the Worst Estate in Manchester 
• Assests retatined – 
• Canal Network 
• Community Spirit 
• Collaborative Workshops offered re-housing options to residents 
• Rebranding of estate 
• Will Alsop Masterplan, including “the Chips” 
• Mixed Use, including 
• 1700 new homes 
• Variety of Parks – Community Park, Wildlife Island, Orchard, Boardwalk, Beach 
• Revival of Waterway 
• Primary School 
• Primary Care Centre 
• Small Scale Retail 
• 180units/hectare 
• All dwellings to achieve Eco-Homes Excellent 
• Maximise use of natural sunlight 
• Use of low embodied energy materials throughout 
• Combined Heat and Power, future-proofed for bio-fuels 
• Jobs created for local people within the construction phase
    

Things you might forget, or things you might not know… 

• Integrate design at an early stage – ideally stage A/B, rather than at Stage C/D – consulting Energy Engineers / assessors. Check for Policy changes if the project has been on hold for a while.
    
• Recent UK Policy changes include PPS1 Addendum –
              Demonstrate how building regulations to be met at planning stage
    
• Passive Design – 
• Use the sun’s energy to reduce winter heating requirement 
• Orientate main façade within 30degrees of south 
• Avoid overshadowing 
• Utilise thermal mass to store heat 
• Minimise glazing to north façade 
• Add a glazed winter garden to south façade 
• Incorporating 2-3% Carbon Dioxide emission savings may reduce the “renewables” target – spray taps, smaller baths, energy efficient applicances + lights
• Remember to design in CHP Spaces into 1st phase of phased construction
  Use Thermal Analysis at scheme design stage to highlight potential overheating + design out prior to planning consent
    
• Check Planning Policy for correct wording –
  If 10% CO2 saving is required, target electrical – 3.5m2 Solar Thermal panels should achieve target saving
  If 10% Energy saving is required, target Gas – 2.2m2 Solar Thermal panels should achieve target saving
    
• Code for Sustainable Homes – Water
  Average UK use – 150 litres/person/day
  Typical Spec – 190 l/p/d
              6l Standard WC
              full flow taps
              standard bath – 200l
              shower – 15 l/minute flow
  Level 3 – 105 l/p/d
              Dual Flush 6/4 l WC
              Aerated taps
              Small bath – 150l
              6 litre shower 

Level 5 – 80 l/p/d 

Dual Flush 4/2 l WC 

Aerated taps 

Small bath 

Less than 6litre shower

Rainwater / Greywater harvesting for WC Flush 

 Products
   

• Pilkington “Optitherm” glazing controls heat loss and solar gain  
• “Ecoplay” grey water systems will treat + recycle grey water for use in WCs  
• “Dupont Energain” is a gypsum/paraffin Wax sealed board, which absorbs heat in lightweight construction by altering its state (effectively melts and solidifies) in hot temperatures. More info    
• Wind Turbines –  
• Swift (1.5kW, 2.1m diameter), £5250, provides approx 50% electricity needs of a 3bed house  
• Proven (15kW, 9m diameter), £40,000, provides all electricity needs of 7.5no. 3bed houses