Case Study
Client: CALA Homes (Southern)
Sector: Residential / Mix Use
A multi-phase, residential and SANG green infrastructure scheme with the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Council Authority. The site forms a large development allocation and TG have been involved from early masterplanning and outline application stages, through to reserved matters detailed submission and ongoing construction phases. During all phases, Arboricultural involvement has been paramount owing to the site’s sensitive landscape context and historic character features and complex constraints including the presence of protected and veteran trees.
Our team included:
Rich Middleton – Arboriculture Associate
Ben Vause – Senior Arboriculture Consultant
Arboricultural Methodology & Protection
Arboricultural Methodology & Protection Measures:
An Arboricultural Impact Assessment (AIA) & Arboricultural Method Statement (AMS) were used to support this projects’ detailed applications (discharge of planning condition stages). Careful design advice and detailed layout refinement enabled Root Protection Area (RPA) encroachment and impacts to be minimised whilst applying suitable mitigation and precautionary measures to further limit impacts to retained trees. Healthy development offsets and buffers were achievable, especially away from the site’s highest value assets (including veteran trees and Category A specimens), to enable their retention with little direct impact from the development in many instances.
Strong Baseline Data Enables Robust Planning:
Accurate BS5837 Tree Quality Survey data and Tree Constraints Plan drawings enabled confident decision-making and helped optimise the detailed scheme designs during the reserved matters stages, enabling tree losses and impacts to be reduced. The thoroughness of the baseline allowed our arboriculture team to guide the project directly with the design team to help reduce design risk by considering multidisciplinary constraints together and helped keep the project programme on schedule. Above all, obtaining comprehensive arboricultural constraints data allowed the client to receive concise and defensible advice aligned to best industry practice.
Phased SANG Delivery Requires Adaptive Arboriculture:
The complex nature of this scheme, primarily owing to its multi-phase programme, exaggerates the importance of keeping Arboriculture engagement throughout each phase beyond just the need for maintaining planning compliance. The team’s ability and willingness to ensure no corners are cut whether via revisiting earlier assessments or updating reports or plans, as on-site decisions force reactive changes, and keeping up communications with the on-site construction team, enabled the scheme to be delivered effectively from an Arboricultural perspective.
Environmental Constraints:
The project had to contend with highly sensitive environmental designations, particularly the risk of adverse effects on the Dorset Heathlands SPA and SAC, as well as tree specific protections including Tree Preservation Orders and statutory irreplaceable habitats such as Veteran trees. This required thorough data capturing and desk based analysis, robust assessments and design optimisation,, as well as bespoke mitigation strategies.
Arboricultural Complexities:
Several arboricultural issues required ongoing, adaptive management:
These issues meant that our Arboriculture team needed an active presence throughout the design and planning stages.