Bourne Hill proposal goes to planning committee

3:13pm Sunday 11th May 2008

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A PLAN that could see Salisbury District Council's Bourne Hill offices get an £18.9m makeover will be considered by its planning committee on Thursday.

A year on from a fiercely-fought public campaign to save the Secret Garden', which resulted in the ousting of the council's Tory administration last May the new Lib Dem and Labour administration is seeking approval for its own extension scheme.

The council hopes to build a smaller extension to the listed building, which allows the garden to be retained, but at a cost of nearly £3m more than the original scheme.

A planning application was submitted in February following seven months of consultation and design work, as the council reviewed the original proposal.


Garden "will be improved"


Salisbury District Council's portfolio holder for finance, Cllr Andrew Roberts, said: "We promised that we would listen to the concerns expressed by the local community and this new scheme has been designed to take into account local people's views. I am particularly pleased that in response to views expressed the Secret Garden will not only be saved but it will also be improved with many of its original features reinstated."

Last summer, more than 10,000 people responded to a survey on the Bourne Hill project with 53 per cent saying the original scheme should be modified.

Local residents, councillors and interest groups were also invited to a series of consultation workshops during January 2008.

The first workshop looked at the overall scheme and the other workshops focused on defining the design brief for the Secret Garden.

A full report on the workshops has been included as part of the new applications submissions.

The scheme aims to provide much needed public office space, a new register office and areas for community use.


Eco-friendly


The new extension to the building has been designed to be environmentally friendly and will include sustainable features such as a green and a brown roof to encourage ecological diversity, rainwater harvesting, natural ventilation, and daylight and lighting control.

An extensive tree planning and ecological strategy has been drawn up to include proposals for the planting of 48 semi-mature native trees and tree protection zones for existing trees. Bat and bird boxes have already been installed in the surrounding parkland.

If the planning application is approved construction is likely to start this summer and it is hoped the new building will be open for business at the beginning of 2010.