Saxon Way & Stanley Street

South Tyneside, South Tyneside Housing Ventures Trust Limited

Description of Scheme

The scheme incorporates Best Practice guidance from a range of sources, including the HCA's Design and Quality Standards (inherited from the Housing Corporation), the HCA's Non-Mainstream Housing Design Guidance, the Wheelchair Housing Design Guide, Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighbourhoods, and the HAPPI reports. In particular, the scheme embraces the 10 HAPPI principles and all of the archetypes proposed are compliant with the HQI and HCA Space Standards. All of the archetypes are Lifetime Homes and Wheelchair Housing Design compliant.

The scheme for this site includes a majority of houses rather than flats. As such the houses have a good range of living and bedroom spaces to offer flexible living arrangements. All the house types meet HCA Core Standards and are Lifetime Homes Compliant. The bungalows and ground floor flats on the Tyneside Flat type also meet Wheelchair Housing Design Guide version 2 standards.

All house types have large windows in the living areas with low cills to allow good views out from a seated position. Circulation areas are well lit with daylighting coming from the sidelight adjacent to the front door and sunpipe mounted in the roof over the stair. The living rooms and studies will all achieve 1.5% daylight factor as is considered best practice in the Code for Sustainable Homes standard.

There are no single aspect flats in the scheme. All houses and flats have access to areas of outdoor space.

All homes will be fitted with broadband capacity. With the addition of a wireless router this will enable wi-fi enabled devices including tablet pcs, internet enabled televisions and other devices to connect easily to telecare/telehealth facilities.

Paths and streets are generally designed according to homezone principles and thus create safe and attractive routes for pedestrian activities. This creates a backdrop for convivial routes. Additionally there is a richly-landscaped 'green route' that connects the two sites. This provides a safe and interesting route with a number of 'events' along its length. These include community allotments, orchard, biodiverse pond/ swale and areas for incidental play/sitting.

Streets are designed along homezone principles that create a softer appearance to the public realm and encourage pedestrian activity and social use of the street. There is extensive tree planting to the street and it is envisaged that front boundaries will usually consist of railings and hedges. This creates a 'green edge' to the street. Native planting will be used to encourage these elements to become habitats for birds and insects. In addition there is a substantial linear park that will link the two sites. This will contain areas of biodiverse planting as well as focal spaces in the form of swales and a pond.

Homes will meet Code 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes as a minimum with higher levels targeted if cost-effective. The team have adopted a 'fabric-first' approach to ensure energy demand is tackled as the first step. As the majority of rooms also have more than one window or have the facility for cross ventilation which will tackle any overheating issues. Roof eaves will be designed to facilitate winter solar access while limiting summer heat gains.

As part of the targeted approach to achieving Code Level 3, all homes will be provided with external sheds and the internal storage requirement will comply with HQI standards. Wheelchair-compliant units have designated areas for wheelchair/scooter storage/transfer and all other homes have activity/storage areas as identified in the Lifetime Homes requirements.

Shared surfaces are used in 'mews' areas where there are few car movements. These allow for highly people-centred public space and encourage social interaction. Contrasting surface tones and small (15mm) changes in level can be used to demarcate zones and footpaths where required to avoid difficulties for the visually impaired.

Where Is It?

The site comprises two housing areas; Saxon Way to the North and Stanley Street to the South, unified by means of a Linear Park created over the location of the new Tyne Tunnel.

Proximity

The site lies within an established residential are within Jarrow with close links to the nearby Town Centre, affording easy walking distances and public transport for the less mobile to access services and facilities.

Relevant Local Strategy

The Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) recently commissioned by the Council, shows that addressing the accommodation requirements of older people is going to become a major strategic challenge for the council over the next few decades, with the number of residents aged 65 and over expected to increase dramatically.

The SHMA identifies a shift in the aspirations of the older population demonstrating an increased appetite for lifetime homes. It is therefore evident that the council needs to offer the right size and type of accommodation to house its older population.

Useful Local Statistics

The population is reducing overall, and at a faster rate among children and young people. The total population reduced from 156,847 in 1993 to 149,700 in 2007 and it is projected that the borough's population may fall as low as 140,900 by 2029.

As part of the council's approach to regenerating the borough's communities, the authority has strong and ambitious plans not only to stop the decline in our population but to attract people to South Tyneside.

Of more importance, the number of people aged 60 years and over is projected to increase from 24 per cent of the population in 2007 to 33 per cent in 2029. South Tyneside is predicted to contain above average numbers of older persons. Life expectancy for both men and women in the borough is below the national average. The higher than average numbers of older people we have, also suffer from poorer health and more deprivation than the national average.

Facilities

A unique and innovative Linear Park links the Saxon Way site in the North, with the Stanley Street South in the West.

The Linear Park incorporates allotments and community gardens, and creates opportunities for South Tyneside Housing Ventures Trust to work closely with the Dunn Street Primary School, and adjacent Day Nursery, to ensure that this "Green Lung", in close proximity to Jarrow Town Centre, can be appreciated and shared by the community.

The Linear Park is developed on the "no build zone" above the new Tyne Tunnel, and utilises Space Left After Development (SLAD) in an imaginative and community orientated manner.

South Tyneside Housing Ventures Trust will liaise closely with the school and day nursery to ensure that the "Green Lung" becomes an "Outdoor Classroom" for the children, helping them to understand the food chain, and the ecological issues associated with growing food, as well as the potential for recreation and leisure associated with allotments, food growing, and other green issues.

A walkway links the retirement accommodation off Stanley Street and High Street, providing safe routes through the garden to the housing development at Saxon Way. Secure but controlled access will be provided to the garden on the day nursery and the outdoor classrooms in liaison with the Education Authority.

Discussions with Dunn Street Primary School are on-going with regard to ways in which salad and vegetables can be provided for meal times and the process of growing, preparing and eating well-balanced home grown sustainable food can be included as part of the syllabus.

Our work and that of our architectural team on previous projects has proven that providing housing for the elderly and their related families creates numerous opportunities for horticultural and gardening expertise which has been developed over a lifetime of experience, to be harnessed for the good of the community.

Allotments, community orchards and edible landscapes (fruit bushes, bramble, and living walls and edible hedging) all facilitate the promulgation of the landscape as food resource for the community.

Providing a well-used and safe routeway through the linear garden will ensure the maximisation of passive surveillance of this space and make it safe and vandal free.

The provision of Housing for the Elderly, overlooking the Primary School from the Stanley Street and the Saxon Way site, will have enormous benefits from a security point of view for both the Dunn Street Primary School and Day Nursery.

The "Green Lung" will not only serve the immediate residential community, but with careful coordination may also provide recreational opportunities for Town Centre workers at lunchtime and after work hours. The Linear Park/"Green Lung" will provide a green focus at the end of view corridors from Ormonde Street, North Street, Grange Road and the High Street itself, providing a green boundary to the town centre, and enhancing the urban environment.

Address

Saxon Way & Stanley Street,
Jarrow,
Tyne & Wear,
South Tyneside,
NE32 3PZ.

Scheme Location Map