RMA was instructed by North Devon Council to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for a hybrid planning application for the redevelopment of the former North Devon Leisure Centre and Long Stay Car Park at Seven Brethren Bank in Barnstaple, Devon.
The regeneration proposals involved redeveloping the northern area of the site for residential use of up to 180 dwellings, creation of public open spaces and landscaping, sustainable drainage features, improvements to flood defences, new access routes for vehicles and enhanced river front pedestrian and cycle routes.
RMA were responsible for providing specialist technical assessments as well as co-ordinating a multi-disciplinary team of environmental specialists. This involved assessments of air quality, archaeology & cultural heritage, climate change, ecology, ground conditions, townscape & visual amenity, noise, socio-economic & health, transport and water resources & flood risk.
Technical assessments and surveys were undertaken over a period of over 12 months including habitat and protected species surveys. air quality dispersion modelling, environmental and geotechnical site investigations, ground gas monitoring, noise modelling, traffic counts and an arboricultural survey. The results of these surveys allowed for a detailed and robust understanding of the environmental baseline conditions and constraints and, from this, the final masterplan was prepared which included mitigation measures to ensure that the proposed development did not result in any significant adverse impacts on the environment.
The EIA process determined that one of the key constraints was contamination, due to part of the site being used historically as a landfill. There was a requirement to provide 0.6 m of clean material to cap the former landfill areas to prevent the migration of any contamination.
Due to flood risk constraints on site, it was necessary to provide a safe access/egress to land located within an area of low flood risk so the masterplan including raising footpaths above the tidal flood level with an allowance for climate change as well as improvements to the flood defences. Finished Floor Levels (FFL) for all buildings on site were proposed to be raised well above the future flood level and an 8 m easement free of built development was included in the layout to provide access for future maintenance to the flood defences.
The proposal was granted planning permission by North Devon Council under planning reference 73606 and construction works have commenced.
