Long awaited planning approval

We are delighted that our application for a major mixed residential scheme in Bishop’s Waltham has been unanimously approved by Winchester City Council.

The application was first submitted in mid-2017 and we are wondering if five years for approval is a record. The approved proposal for Beechcroft Developments includes retirement housing, family housing, some affordable flats and a care home.

The site is very close to the ruins of the medieval bishop’s palace, on the edge of the bishop’s fish pond, and the proposals include the conversion of a Victorian mill.

Happy New Year

Firstly let us wish you very Happy New Year.

Although Christmas 2021 did not turn out exactly as we all hoped, the year had on the whole been good at RMA and things are bright looking forward. Our base in the grounds of Hatfield House provides the ideal hub for a team still working largely, and very effectively, from home and a base for new local work.

We have been working on a series of spectacular one-off houses. In Harrow an ‘Arts and Crafts’ villa has been completely re-invented, with a new basement leisure complex, seen here just after the pool was filled. Similar projects at slightly earlier stages are currently under way in Hampstead, Belsize Park and Kingston upon Thames.

Harrow

Filled Pool at Harrow

The team have also continued to work on a wide variety of housing projects for older people. Our 77-apartment Extra Care scheme in Norfolk is currently out to tender while three major applications for Retirement Housing in Kent, Surrey, and Hampshire and two care homes are all currently in for planning: projects with a combined construction value in excess of £60M.

Extra Care Scheme in Diss

Cotswold Gate, Burford

Pictured here is our newly completed Retirement Housing scheme for Beechcroft Developments in Godalming clustered around an extraordinary Edwardian house created by a teacher at nearby Charterhouse School. Another recent completion has been at Cotswold Gate in Burford.

Godalming

Godalming

Richard’s work as chair of the Retirement Housing Group UK continues to be both demanding and rewarding, with a growth in membership, including top specialist providers in the field, cementing the group’s inclusive reputation, representing developers, operators, and consultants right across the older people’s housing sector. Our lobbying of government continues as a major strand of work and we are currently involved demonstrating the important role specialist housing can play in ‘levelling up.’

Expert witness advice from both Richard and Yarema also continues to be much in demand with current cases in many parts of the country: Bolton and Cheshire, Mayfair, Hampstead, and many others. It can be very intriguing to consider the extraordinary way in which some other architects work.

And so, our best wishes to you all for a prosperous, much more normal new year.