THE DEVELOPMENT OF NORTH SWINDON
24 September 2002
Written by David Thompson, Crest Nicholson plc
I first became involved with the North Swindon Development (now known as Abbey Meads) in November 1988. At that time we had a “minded to approve” letter from the Department of the Environment as a result of an appeal in 1997. The Department of the Environment Inspector stated that the development offered the most generous planning gain package he had ever come across.
The first land deal was back in 1982 when Crest acquired Abbey Farm from the Hitchin family. A second area of land was tied up by way of an option in 1993 with the Francis family. It then took a further ten years before planning permission was obtained in 1992 and only then as a result of three years of negotiations with the then Thamesdown Borough Council to resolve the details to be included within the Section 106 Agreement which basically ties up the ‘planning gain’ package.
Just before the Section 106 Agreement was finally settled with the Local Authority, we (Crest Nicholson) spent a solid four days working at our solicitor’s office in London, each day’s work would have been completed at around 3am having grabbed a late night pizza or Mac Donald’s. We were then back at the office at 7.30am to start the new “battle” – all of which was done by fax and phone – no such thing as e-mail in those days.
The former Francis land, just off Lady Lane was the first area to be developed. The family farmhouse, which is now the Manor Inn, was the scene of many a discussion with Godfrey Francis – usually sitting in his kitchen drinking cups of tea.
Work commenced in 1993 and the first area was built by Barratt & Britannia Homes with access from Lady Lane. I seem to remember that 1993 –94 was the wettest autumn/winter for years and, as a result, we made very slow progress on the roads and provision of sewers – both of which, most of the time were more like rivers, the water coming straight down Lady Lane and into the development area.
From a slow start, we built and sold 81 units in 1994, building up to a massive 800 units in 1997, quite an impressive increase within the space of four years. At the peak we had twelve of the country’s leading housebuilders building and selling an average of 66 units p.a. Needless to say it took only seven years to build over 2,700 houses at an average of 419 per annum. The majority of new occupants came from West Swindon although a large percentage were relocating to Swindon as past of a job move.
Being truthful, Abbey Meads did not set new trends in urban design although it was very much what the buying public wanted. At that time over 65% of the houses built were either 3,4 or 5 bedroom detached units. The architecture was never very special. I got the impression that the purchasers wanted to buy the biggest “box” possible for the least amount of money. The average density for Abbey Meads was less than 12 dwellings per acre; in Priory Vale it will be in excess of 15 units per acre. The first Barratt home, typically a four bedroom detached house of 11,000 sq ft would have cost in the order of £110,000; today a similar house will be nearer to £185,000, an increase of 67% in eight years.
There is now a serious shortage of houses in the UK. The year 2001 saw the lowest numbers of houses completed since the early 1950’s due entirely to a lack of land available for development and the slow and cumbersome planning system, particularly in respect of Local Plans which are now taking well over two years before being adopted policy.
In October 2000 work started on what we now know as “Priory Vale”, a development which when completed in circa 2010 will accommodate nearly 18,000 people living in 6,000 new houses, set in over 650 acres.
Before any houses could be occupied on Priory Vale, it was essential that the North Orbital road was completed between Mouldon Hill and Lady Lane at a cost of some £15m – the total cost of the N.O.R. will be in the region of £30m by the time all the off site works have been undertaken.
The planning gain cost of Priory Vale has substantially increased over the years and the cost of developing such a scheme is beyond the capability of one developer, plus of course not all the land was in one ownership. As a result, the North Swindon Development Company was formed acting as an enabler in respect of all the works. The NSDC is owned and run jointly by George Wimpey, Westbury Homes Holdings, Bloor, Bryant Homes, Crest Nicholson and Walmart.
Visitors to Priory Vale will notice a huge change from Abbey Meads. Priory Vale will be designed very much bearing in mind the recent Government Guidance, looking at substantially improved urban design with a marked difference in the architectural style of the homes. The Crest Nicholson development being typical of what the purchasers can expect to see.
Show houses are springing up all over the development so that the public will be able to see the improvement for themselves. It would be nice to get some feedback on what the public think (Patricia – perhaps we could get their comments via the web site)
The whole context of Priory Vale is much more exciting, not only in improvement in design, but also the facilities on offer.
The Village Centre, which will be immediately North of Junction 7 of the N.O.R., is going to be something special in that it will be based upon a traditional village square and will include a market place and pavement cafes – unfortunately very much at risk in terms of our weather. More can be seen by visiting the Priory Vale web site.
Priory Vale will be made up of a series of villages which are named after local places or fields. Redhouse in the north is named after one of the field names dating back to the early 1700’s. Oakhurst also in the north is named after the farmhouse previously owned by Mr & Mrs Webb of Haydon End Farm. It was a wedding present given to them by a relation. Mrs Webb was not too happy when she was told that it was going to be demolished as part of the overall development. Haydon End is also named after the farm.
Another “jewel in the crown” will be the Education Campus which is over 32 acres in size. Swindon Borough Council have just obtained a grant of £58m for this campus and for improvements to the Herrod Parkway school. Priory Vale education campus will house a secondary school for 1200 children, a primary and junior school, two special needs schools for learning difficulties, a sports hall and a floodlit all weather football pitch, both of which will be available for use outside school hours. The secondary school at the moment is targeted for opening in September 2006.
There will be three other primary schools within Priory Vale, the first of which (adjacent to Sandstone Road, off Lady Lane) will be opening in September 2003.
Perhaps one of the popular parts of the development will be the District shopping Centre – now called Orbital Shopping Centre. Like its name, this retail park is very disappointing, especially in respect of the architecture which, at best, is pretty ordinary. I hasten to add that this is my own personal opinion.
The Walmart foodstore which opened a year ago seems to be very popular and certainly has a huge variety of things for sale – all within a floor area of 100,000 sq ft (net retail). It has proved to be a huge local employer with over 400 staff be they full or part time.
The rest of the centre will be completed by the end of this year (2002). The new Comet store opened a month ago. Next and Homebase are due to open within days followed closely be JJB Sports and a new bookstore known as Borders. JJB Sports will also be opening a Health & Leisure Club, I understand, to be run on a private basis. There will also be a further 7 smaller units of 700 sq ft each. At the time of writing, I don’t know who will be occupying these units.
A new Visitors Centre is currently under construction adjacent to Junction 8 of the N.O.R. Purchasers will, when it is open in the first week of November, be able to make the centre their first port of call and be directed to a developer who may be building the type of property that they are looking for.
All the consortium developers will have displays of their various schemes which can be viewed before purchasers set off to see the development of their choice.
Our receptionists will be able to explain all about Priory Vale, particularly in terms of the facilities, hopefully helping to make up the mind of the intended purchasers.
I am fairly certain that people visiting Priory Vale will see a considerable improvement over Abbey Meads - only time will tell.
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