Design and Access Statements - Guidance for Applicants and Agents

This Guidance Note sets out what such Statements should address. It has been drawn up by Planning Officers across the whole of Hampshire, including Southampton and Portsmouth, the Isle of Wight and the New Forest National Park, so as to provide consistency of approach for applicants and their agents.

Please read this advice carefully. If a Design and Access is required your application will not be registered unless it conforms with the legislative guidance. A checklist is set out at the end of this guidance note.

What is a Design and Access Statement?

A Design and Access Statement is a short report which illustrates the process which led to the final proposal to explain and justify the form of the development, addressing both design and access and demonstrating how each informs the other. It need not be long but must be proportionate to the complexity of the application. It should clearly demonstrate how the proposal fits the context of the site and how the needs of all sections of the community have been considered so that it is accessible to all. It is not a substitute for detailed scaled plans and drawings but can include sketches and photographs. It should be jargon free and easily understood by the general public.

What do I need to do?

There are five essential steps:

1. Appraising the Context

This should include:

An Assessment of the character both of the site itself and its immediate surroundings. It should consider:

• Physical, social and economic characteristics
• Relevant planning policies

It may include both a desk survey and on-site observations and access audit. The extent of the area to be surveyed will depend on the nature, scale and sensitivity of the development.

Involvement of the community including:

• Consultation with local community and access groups
• Meetings with planning, building control, conservation, design and access officers

The Statement should identify who has been consulted and demonstrate how community views have been taken into account in drawing up the proposal.

Evaluation of the assessment and community involvement:

• Identifying opportunities and constraints
• Formulating design and access principles
• Balancing any potentially conflicting issues 
• Showing how the appropriate use or mix of uses for the land and buildings has been identified.
• Design and access statements for both outline and detailed applications should explain:
• The use or uses proposed,
• Their distribution across the site,
• The appropriateness of the accessibility to and between them, and
• Inter-relationship to uses surrounding the site.

2. Identifying the Design Principles

An appreciation of the context provides the principles for arriving at the design principles and concepts that have been applied to particular aspects of the proposal. Applicants should not work retrospectively, or try to justify a pre-determined design through subsequent site assessment and evaluation.

The Statement needs to consider:

Amount. For both outline and full applications:

• Residential: the number of proposed units should be specified.
• Non residential: the proposed floor space for each proposed use.

In either case the quantum should be explained and justified and the Statement should:

• Show how the distribution across the site has been arrived at
• Demonstrate how the proposal relates to the site's surrounding
• Show how accessibility for users to and between parts of the development is maximised

Layout. This is the way in which buildings, routes and open spaces (both private and public) are provided and sited in relation both to each other and buildings and spaces surrounding the development.

For outline applications the Design and Access Statement should:

• Provide information on the approximate location of buildings, routes and open spaces.
• Explain and justify the principles behind the choice of development zones and blocks or building plots

For detailed and outline applications where layout is not reserved, the Design and Access Statement should:

• Explain and justify the layout in terms of the relationship between buildings and public and private spaces within and around the site
• Show how these relationships will help to create safe, vibrant and successful places
• Indicate the factors helping to make the site accessible for users, such as travel distances and gradients
• Show the orientation of block and units in relation to any site topography and how this helps achieve accessibility.
• Demonstrate how the design incorporates crime prevention measures and the attributes of safe, sustainable places as set out in Safer Places- the Planning System and Crime Prevention (ODPM/Home Office, 2003)

Scale. This is the height, width and length of a building or buildings in relation to its surroundings.

Outline applications should:

• State the upper and lower limits of the height, width and length of each building proposed
• Thereby establish a 3-dimensional building framework for the detailed design of the buildings that will be constructed
• Explain and justify the principles behind these parameters and
• explain how these will inform the final scale of the buildings

For detailed and outline applications where scale is not reserved, the Design and Access Statement should:

• Explain and justify how the proposed scale has been arrived at
• Demonstrate how this relates to the site's surroundings and the relevant skyline
• Explain and justify the scale of building features, such as entrances and facades, and show how they relate to human scale

Landscaping. This includes both the planted (soft) and built (hard) landscape elements in private and public spaces

Outline applications should:

• Explain and justify the principles that will inform any future landscaping scheme, but need not provide any specific information.

For detailed and outline applications where landscaping is not reserved, the design and access statement should:

• Explain the purpose of landscaping private and public spaces and how proposals relate to the surrounding area
• Provide a schedule of planting and proposed hard landscaping materials
• Explain how landscaping will be maintained
• Explain how the development will support biodiversity. This could include the creation of a natural habitat or supporting an existing one.

Appearance. This refers to the visual impression a place or building makes, including the external built form of the development, its architecture, materials, decoration, lighting, colour and texture.

Outline applications should:

• explain and justify the principles that will inform the appearance and final design of the scheme, but need not provide any specific information

For detailed and outline applications where appearance is not reserved, the Design and Access Statement should:

• Explain and justify the appearance of the scheme and how this relates to the appearance and character of its surroundings
• Demonstrate how the decisions taken about appearance have considered accessibility e.g contrasts in tone and colour to help define important accessibility features like. entrances, circulation routes or seating; location and levels of lighting.

3. Identifying the Access Principles

The same process should be followed with regard to access. "Access" refers to "access to the development", not just the internal aspects of individual buildings. Gosport Borough has high levels of traffic congestion caused by out-commuting using a limited road network on a peninsula location. Public transport is limited with no railway station. The Statement should demonstrate that these factors have been taken into account when developing your proposal.

The statement should:

• Describe the site and the existing access arrangements
• Evaluate the sustainability of the existing access arrangements

For outline applications, where access is reserved, the application should:

• Indicate the location of points of access to the site.
• Clearly explain the principles which will be used to inform the access arrangements for the final development at all scales from neighbourhood movement patterns where appropriate to the treatment of individual access points to buildings.

A checklist of topics that should be covered may include:

• Highway Access
• Pedestrian Access
• Public Transport Access
• Cycle Access
• Parking provision
• Sustainability (location)
• Emergency and service access

4. Creating the Design Solution

There may be several different design solutions for a site. The design solution should be based upon the design principles that have been established through the appraisal of the context and identification of design principles. Without going through these two stages the design solution is likely to be flawed.

5. Creating the Access Solution

Statements should:

• Explain how access arrangements will ensure that all users will have equal and convenient access to buildings and spaces and the public transport network
• Address the need for flexibility of the development and how it may adapt to changing needs
• Explain how access for the emergency services can be achieved, including circulation routes round the site and egress from buildings in the event of emergency evacuation

Design and Access Statements are required for all applications for planning permission except for those proposing engineering operations, changes of use with no operational development, and householder applications. However, Design and Access Statements are needed for householder applications where any part of the curtilage of the property lies in a Conservation Area, Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), National Park, World Heritage Site or The Broads.

Design and Access Statement Checklist

Design Component

Access Component