Blanchard Fields
Property Priority for Locals
A unique development opportunity for DN Associates, Rainey Petrie Architecture were pleased to work with them to design a rurally sympathetic scheme for 44 homes.
Blanchard Fields is a 4Ha. site set in Brighstone on the Isle of Wight that was gifted by John Cheverton as part of his estate. The development includes a mixture of housing with open market properties, Over 55’s housing, affordable housing and self build plots. The properties are given priority to local people and there is a criteria to be eligible to apply to purchase them.
Rainey Petrie were appointed in 2013 to prepare proposals for planning application which after several negotiations around the proposed site layout, highways and landscaping planning was approved in 2019.
Development requirements
In order to realise both the aspirations of the benefactors and the economic viability of the proposal, the development value needed to be generated by the site considerably beyond its value as agricultural land.
This development supports the provision of infrastructure, particularly roads and drainage, as well as supporting affordable family housing and other facilities such as public open space. In addition, land was allocated to Abbeyfield, who are one of the charitable beneficiaries, and to a doctor’s surgery, which meets aspirations to retain an enhanced facility in Brighstone as village centre for the surrounding area, and meet some of the objectives in the village plan in relation to congestion near the school.
Landscape planning
The primary landscape features of this site are the mature boundary hedges and banks, the stands of trees in the centre and the copse to the north-east together with the distant views to the surrounding hills and the sea. Whilst some modification of these attributes was inevitable for
development to take place, the layout sought to retain the majority of these features and develop complimentary ones within the site. The long distant views were retained from many parts of both Main Road and Upper Lane.
The site also sits within the island's Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the development was planned to retain the principle landscape features when viewed from the surrounding hills as well as views out from the site to the downs.
