Land between West Street, Bath Street, Royal Pier Road and Queen ...

elationship in scale between the new buildings and the historic High Street, particularly in viewsfrom the riverside and the river itself. In acknowledging the modest changes to this quarter that“will help resolve the change in scale between the old town and the new build development”,English Heritage’s formal consultation response states that it will “facilitate a better townscaperelationship in longer views towards the town from the river, and will enhance the framing of viewsof the spire of St George’s Church from the east”.Furthermore, the siting and alignment of the new buildings themselves will not obstruct existingview towards the river from Queen Street that aid in connecting the town and the river. In fact thisis a view that will actually be improved by the scheme that includes the removal of some treesadjacent to Thames House that will be of benefit to the character and appearance of the HighStreet Conservation Area.Proportionately less emphasis has been placed on assessing the impact on the setting of the lesssignificant heritage assets within the area of the proposals. This is particularly the case in WestStreet and Queen Street but the replacement of open car parks with reinstated urban form thatthey were once associated with will be of benefit to their setting, as accepted by the BoroughCouncil’s Conservation Officer.Furthermore the proposals for St Andrews Gardens are indicative and do not anticipatedevelopment other than improvements to accessibility and attractiveness of the spaces so theimpact upon the setting of the Grade II listed St Andrews Arts Centre, The Mission House,Thames House and the Royal Clarendon Hotel should be nothing other than beneficial. Likewisethese improvement works will also ensure the character and appearance of the RiversideConservation Area will be preserved or enhanced.The applicant concludes that where the setting of a listed building is directly affected that thenature of the effect is generally beneficial, whereas those listed buildings located further awayexperience a largely neutral effect to their setting. It concludes further that effect of thedevelopment on the character and setting of built heritage assets in and around the applicationsite will be beneficial. These findings have been verified by the Borough Council’s ConservationOfficer and for reference purposes extracts of the applicant’s heritage assessment is includedwithin Appendix 4.As a final point, the protection of potentially significant buried heritage assets is an appropriateconsideration, as highlighted within the NPPF. English Heritage have highlighted the high potentialfor archaeology to be located beneath the application sites and this has been supported by initialdesk based assessments, and so it is important that appropriate field evaluation is carried out priorto any development commencing. Whilst pre-submission field works were encouraged toaccurately determine the presence and significance of any archaeology, it remains a matter thatcan sufficiently be safeguarded through a planning condition. This approach has been acceptedby the KCC Archaeological Officer to ensure that any significant archaeology is adequatelyprotected and the applicant has confirmed that such works will be carried out to inform the detaileddesign of the Western Quarter. It is commented further that this provides an opportunity for agreater understanding of the area’s history through archaeological investigation that would onlyrealistically take place as part of an extensive redevelopment such as when the original shoppingcentre was built in the 1980’s.Residential AmenityIn considering any proposals for development it is important to have regard to the impact that itmay have on adjoining buildings, which is most sensitive when it will cause harm to residentialamenity. It is also important to assess the quality of any new residential environments proposed toensure adequate living conditions for future residents.