The Scottish Government

Name

Ian Conway

Job title

Organisation

Kier Homes Ltd

Address

Merlin House, Mossland Road, Hiliington, Glasgow, G52 4XZ

Telephone

0141 880 1100

Fax

0141 880 1101

Email

i.conway@kierhomes.co.uk

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Development Plans Development Management Development on the Ground Community Involvement

Title of entry

The Consultative Approach to Development - the delivery of the redevelopment of the former Belvidere Hospital, East End, Glasgow

Professional knowledge Innovation Management Sustainable development

Partnership Community interest Regeneration Customer satisfaction

Kier Homes successfully implemented a thorough and robust consultative approach to the delivery of the Planning and Listed Building Consents for a residential development at Belvidere Hospital, Glasgow. This scheme represents the first major private developer investment in the heart of the East End Regeneration Area - an area that had lacked investment of this sort for decades.

Planning and Listed Building Consent has been granted by Glasgow City Council for the conversion and refurbishment of a prime listed building and the erection of 489 new build units comprising of flats, terraces, townhouses, semi-detached and detached villas. An urban park of some 3.25 Ha also formed part of the proposal.

The consented scheme exhibits a very high quality of urban design and the methodology used in taking the initial designs forward in collaboration with the key public stakeholders has been publicly praised by Glasgow City Council. Our approach accords with the new ethos of thorough consultation and achievement of design quality promoted by the Scottish Executive. This methodology resulted in Committee determining the application for approval within 6 months in an almost unaltered fashion form that originally submitted.

We sought to "bust the developer stereotype" when embarking on this journey at Belvidere and feel strongly that this has been achieved and has raised the bar for both ourselves and all others involved in the future.

Belvidere Hospital (approx 13 Ha) started life in the late 19th century as an infectious diseases hospital. It evolved through time to focus on other health care issues including use a maternity and general hospital until it became defunct in 1999.

The buildings on site were demolished, with the exception of the doctor's house which was the centerpiece. It was designed in 1880 by John Carrick, city architect. This house has been retained by us and will be converted into flats.

The site was offered to the open market recently by the NHS, and Kier were appointed preferred developers. As well as obtaining statutory consents, Kier had to manage a number of ground and environmental constraints costing many millions of pounds to make ready for development.

To promote Kier as a major developer that focuses on balancing the commerciality of proposals with the desires and principals of the key public decision makers including the community.

To develop proposals in a true collaboration with the statutory decision makers.

To speed the processing of the applications through the regulatory system by utilising thorough pre-application interface with all concerned in an open and transparent manner and balancing the often diverse and conflicting views of interested parties.

To create a development of quality that brings benefits and prestige to the local community, Glasgow City Council and the Kier.

Pre-application discussions with Glasgow City Council, all statutory consultees and the community council were structured within the development of the design statement for the site. The development of the design brief took place over a period of approximately 9 months. This included several individual meeting with stakeholders and several round table forums with various stakeholders to discuss areas of possible conflict or design innovation.

The applications were registered in October 2005 and the Council's Committee being disposed to grant both planning and listed building consents within 5 months of the submission.

Development has commenced on site with construction scheduled to be complete by the beginning of 2010.

The initial development proposals were created by Kier Homes' Land and Planning Team using their planning and development expertise. An external design team was then formed, hand picked for their proven track records within the Glasgow Council area. They were instructed to work to our company's ethos of collaboration and partnership with the key statutory bodies and the community at the front end, to ensure that the applications submitted had the support of the stakeholders concerned. This involved regular detailed meetings with inter alia - planning officers, design officers, roads officers, drainage officers, SEPA, Historic Scotland and Scottish Water. The Community Council were also engaged along with elected Councilors (for information purposes only).

Essentially, no stone was left unturned to ensure that those applications which were formally submitted for determination were as holistic, connected and deliverable as possible. The mainstay of the justification of the proposals was a Design Brief which explored Kier's vision for the site, the Planning Policy context, the Site Context, the Site's Opportunities and Constraints, the options and our preferred Development Strategy. This was produced in consultation with the key decision makers.

Kier Homes are the sole developer and have led the redevelopment of Belvidere Hospital from the outset. We have project managed the development proposals through the planning process in an open and consultative manner. We have also project managed the development through all other statutory consents required and the remediation of the site.

Kier Homes key role in the delivery of this site through the statutory planning process was managing the pre-application consultation process in a committed and pro-active manner. We engaged all statutory consultees and pushed for innovative design approaches to be adopted by the key stakeholders. This open and constructive pre-application approach streamlined the formal planning process and enhanced our relationships and reputation with the key stakeholders and Glasgow City Council in particular.

The consultant team was carefully chosen on the basis of their experience in Glasgow and ability to adopt the approach promoted by Kier Homes. The architects appointed were Hypostyle and the planning consultants I urban designers were Turley Associates.

Only 1 letter of objection from the public.

Committee agreeing to grant planning consent within 5 months of submitting the application.

Minimal changes to the submitted development proposal.

A high quality of design successfully achieved, along with a commercially viable outcome for Kier and the landowner ( NHS).

Praise from the Council regarding our management of the proposals. At a presentation to the development community regarding a similar opportunity at Ruchill Hospital in Glasgow the Council planning officers promoted Kier Homes approach to development at Belvidere as a blue print of best practice that they would wish the successful bidders at Ruchill to follow.

In actively driving forward a collaborative approach with the statutory decision makers and the community we sought to "bust the developer stereotype" when embarking on this journey at Belvidere and feel strongly that this has been achieved. The delivery of the site through the planning system is a high quality example of the consultative and partnership approach to development which is now being promoted by the Scottish Executive.

The consented scheme exhibits a very high quality of urban design and the methodology used in taking the initial designs forward in collaboration with the key public stakeholders has been publicly praised by Glasgow City Council.

In addition we have achieved a commercially viable outcome for Kier and the landowner ( NHS).

29/08/07