Character Assessments - how to produce them

The Countryside Agency produced a booklet entitled Town Design Statements, Why and how to produce them, Good practice advice. The advice given, and methodology, will be followed by the assessment teams organised by the Yateley Society to assess the postwar estates. A Town Design Statement is very similar in concept to a Village Design Statement. We have been preparing a Village Design Framework for the Town Centre for the last 5 years, so why make this confusion by launching into a Town Design Statement? Well actually we are not. The Society proposed assessing the character of Yateley's neighbourhoods on purely landscape planning grounds. We later found that the methodology for producing a Town Design Statement fits in well with our objectives for assessing the large number of post-war housing estates. On the other hand following a Village Design Framework for the historic core of the original small pre-WW2 village makes eminent sense.

The CA documents states: "A Town Design Statement is similar in concept to a Village Design Statement but the scale and complexity of towns means that a carefully co-ordinated approach is required in its production. A Town Design Statement can be produced in isolation or as part of a wider community planning exercise."

Process

The CA documents states that the process shown is only one possibility. It should be used as a guide, not a blueprint. We have therefore selected the steps which appear to apply to our situation

Getting Started

• Workshop to identify main issues and neighbourhood areas
• Training sessions to cover townscape character and website analysis
• Form neighbourhood groups, and any special topic groups
• Publicise the project and call for volunteers
• Project launch event

Gathering material

• Townscape character analysis training for volunteers
• Undertake townscape character analysis in each neighbourhood
• Prepare draft character assessments for each neighbourhood
• Publish on Parish Plans website
• Ward exhibitions and workshops
• Review and revise area character assessments

Production

• Prepare draft Ward Statements to incorporate into Draft Parish Plan
• Publish on Parish Plans website

The whole process will be reviewed and monitored by the Yateley Parish Plans Steering Groupd at each stage.

Townscape character analysis format

taken verbatim from the CA document

Area Name and short description

Area Map with key features and photo locations marked

Context location in the town diagram

Distinctive features Bullet points covering building design styles, spatial layouts, building materials, landscape settings and special features

Main issues Bullet points covering the problems and opportunities in the area as seen from a variety of perspectives

Recommendations general design principles for upgrading or for new development

Tips from the Countryside Agency

• Getting people to take photos of their area and putting captions on them is one of the best ways of generating enthusiasm
• Making the Statement visual - using photographs, drawings, sketches, diagrams - will help make it accessible. And include people in some photos - it's the community that makes the place what it is (sic).
• Developing a clear structure early on will help keep people focused. It can always change later.