The masterplan for the proposed development has been designed with landscape at its heart and aims to preserve, improve, and celebrate the area’s best natural features.
The strong, tree-lined hedgerows that give the area its unique local character are being retained wherever possible, recognising their historic and ecological importance, as well as the site’s location in the National Forest area. Parts of the landscape have fragmented over the years, with historic field boundaries making way for larger agricultural fields resulting in broken wildlife corridors. The scheme will aim to improve this by reinstating lost historic hedgerows and allow the site’s vegetation to connect with Coalfield Meadows once again.
The Ivanhoe way will remain an important route and users of this will benefit from new recreational paths connecting each open green space within the site which will include an expansive grassland, areas of woodland and a number of play areas. The play areas will be tailored for children of different ages and abilities, whilst natural play features such as fallen logs and gentle grass mounds will be scattered along recreational routes.
Key landscape features include:
- Ivanhoe Way providing a key linear connection through the site.
- New footpaths connecting to a series of public open green spaces and providing a looped route throughout the site for activities such as dog walking, running and cycling.
- Strong mature tree-lined hedgerows largely retained and strengthened with native tree and hedgerow planting.
- Landscape restoration in the north where historic field boundaries have been lost to agriculture, historic field patterns to be reinstated providing improved connections for wildlife passing through the site to Coalfield Meadows.
- Woodland block planting to the edges of the site to support transition to adjacent countryside and to mitigate visual impacts.
- Play areas offering a range of play experiences for children of varying ages and abilities, located close to development encouraging natural surveillance.
- Informal play located along active travel routes with a variety of potential playful features such as earth mounding, fallen logs and social seating.
- Ecologically designed drainage to the lowest area of the site planted with natural grassland and meadow.
The landscape-led design approach will see the delivery of extensive areas of new green public open space.