Policy SPS3: Delivering the Basingstoke Town Centre Masterplan

Policy SPS3: Delivering the Basingstoke Town Centre Masterplan

Development proposals must positively contribute to the vitality and viability of the town centre. This will ensure Basingstoke town centre remains the borough’s principal centre for retail, supported by leisure, employment, community, cultural and residential uses.

Development proposals must support, and not prejudice, the implementation of the Masterplan for Basingstoke Town Centre (December 2022) and be consistent with the following key objectives for future change. The town centre will:

1. Be highly sustainable, resilient to climate change and embrace innovative ways to improve the environment, in order to address the council’s Climate Emergency declaration.
2. Be a high-quality and distinctive urban environment that provides inspiring buildings, streets and public spaces and ensures positive experiences for residents and visitors.
3. Have a sense of place which supports its identity as a north Hampshire town and which is informed, as appropriate, by its historic, cultural and architectural heritage.
4. Provide for a variety of biodiversity enhancements, with a strong network of green spaces and natural features.
5. Be a destination for residents and visitors of all ages, with a strong sense of vitality in the daytime and the evening, and support thriving communities.
6. Be well-connected, with walking, cycling and public transport being the predominant modes of travel into and across the town centre.
7. Enable innovation and creativity to thrive.
8. Embraces, promotes, and is connected to local heritage and culture, contributing to the sense of place.

In order to achieve these objectives, planning permission will be granted where development proposals meet the following criteria where they are relevant to the scale and nature of the proposal:

1. Contribute to the provision of a complementary mix of town centre uses within the Town Centre boundary (as defined by Policy EMP3), with the predominant land uses being retail, leisure (including sport), employment (including office, creative and co-working spaces), community and culture (including arts);
2. Deliver approximately 400 homes, focused in, but not limited to, the areas of change outlined in Policy SPS4;
3. Locate retail and leisure uses within the Primary Shopping Area as defined on the Policies Map;
4. Achieve a high standard of design, which responds positively to the key objectives set out above;
5. Protect existing, and introduce new green and blue spaces, green links, street trees and other forms of greenery throughout the town centre such as green walls;
6. Support the creation of new streets at ground level, fronted by buildings and public spaces which are high quality, flexible and adaptable for multiple uses;
7. Support the provision of high quality public spaces which contribute to a sense of civic pride and provide facilities which meet the needs of all residents and visitors.
8. Provide or retain active frontages at ground floor level;
1. Take appropriate opportunities to incorporate residential development, particularly above ground floor level. This should include a mix of different housing types, sizes and tenures, be of a high standard of residential amenity, and have access to supporting infrastructure and private amenity space;
10. Assist new parking facilities to, include integrated charging for electric vehicles, ensure they are future proofed for new technologies, are enabled to form part of a wider smart energy grid; and make provision for community car services;
11. Make provision for parking to meet the needs of residents as well as ensuring that the parking requirements of visitors is met in facilities in nearby locations.  Where decked parking can be shown to be required, it should be developed as an independent structure;
50. Include safe, legible and functional walking and cycling routes to provide improved connectivity across the town centre, and safeguard and improve connections between the Top of Town and the station, between Basing View and the station, and between Basing View and Festival Place. Cycle routes should be well connected to the wider cycle network (in relation to the town and its surroundings), and pedestrian routes should provide safe passage for pushchairs and wheelchairs;
1000. Incorporate new secure and high quality cycle parking for visitors, workers and residents; and
14. Facilitate the provision of a high quality public transport focussed on the town centre, including safeguarding suitable corridors, interchanges and supporting associated infrastructure.

Ensuring the successful delivery of the town centre strategy is likely to involve various transitional arrangements in order to facilitate the development process. Where these are required, they should ensure that the town centre continues to operate effectively in functional terms, and ensure that any impacts on the character of the area are mitigated successfully and in a proportionate way to the nature of the works in question.