TEMPSFORD NEW TOWN – PRELIMINARY SPATIAL STRATEGY

Emeritus Professor Doug Clelland, internationally experienced in urban design and architecture, and former academic at Liverpool John Moores University and the Berlin University of Applied Sciences and Technology, has conducted an in-depth appraisal of the Tempsford area, side-by-side with Nigel Moor, a former planning consultant at RPS, and Gloucestershire County councillor with responsibility for planning. The pair have given evidence on the potential of Tempsford to the New Towns Task Force, the House of Lords’ built environment committee’s New Towns Inquiry, and have been in correspondence with MHCLG and others. The primary driver, with lessons learned from previous generations of new towns, has been to illustrate how a thriving community can be created and act as a catalyst for economic growth. There are three main features to the Spatial Strategy.

The Town Centre as a network of places

North of Tempsford Village Conservation Area (outlined in blue), the centre is bordered to the north by the A428 dual-carriageway; and to the south by the preferred alignment of the proposed East-West-Rail route, intersecting with the East Coast Mainline. The A1(M) is a western edge. The centre is conceived as a mixed-use sector with significant emphasis on Science and Technology campuses. It lies between north and south, predominantly residential, districts.

An avenue leads from a sci-tech campus in the west (blue) to a rail interchange-transport hub in the east (red). This is the principal identifying urban element of the centre, and can take its place among Britain’s great streets. Mixed functions are sited along, and behind, this route, including higher-density housing. Through good leadership and design, successful ‘place making’ can be initiated as a network.

THE INNER TOWN

In integrated neighbourhoods, the bulk of the 25,000 dwellings located within Inner Tempsford New Town lie north and south of the town centre.

The Inner Town

Flood plain parks are shown in green; primary schools in blue; secondary schools in red; kindergartens as dots. To the north and south, residential areas conjoin existing woodland, tree belts and hedgerows with the grid of new neighbourhoods. These areas should achieve a synthesis between rapid and robust buildability, the best of historical housing typologies, pedestrian emphasis, and ease of access to transport.

35 exemplary housing layouts

They should be procured by a development corporation in limited-size modules.

THE WIDER TOWN

The extended town. Inner town and interchange

The Spatial Strategy achieves a target of 40,000 homes, 15,000 of which are located in individually designed satellites, carefully integrated into the geography of an extended area. Work continues, developing these ideas.