Chatting to a Surveyor yesterday about a scheme in Wales I was involved with last year. It was, unfortunately, dismissed at appeal and we were discussing progress on a revised scheme in response to the Inspectors (rather harsh we all felt) decision.
He mentioned he'd had been cc'd an email almost out of the blue this week from a former DC officer in the Council area (now retired) which, quoted £100 to complete a design and access statement to accompany a revised application for 4 dwellings. Absolute bargain... Snap his hand off. Well perhaps.
We believe in quality and that "you get what you pay for". Little things like salary, overheads, insurances, tax and even profit can get in the way. So we can't (and wont) compete with retired/ex DC officers looking for a little money to top up their pension. Best of luck to him and the client if he chooses that route.
A little shot across the bows though, if your new statement vaguely resembles our previous one, our work is copyrighted and owned by us.
Its a highly opportune time, however, to draw readers attention to
further relaxation of the DAS requirements in England as they have come into force from today. The effect is to drastically reduce the occasions when a DAS must be statutorily provided, limiting them to
- "major" applications (i.e those of 10 or more dwellings, 1000m2 or more floorspace or sites of 1.0 ha or more area)
- and in certain circumstances in Conservation Areas and World Heritage sites.
In on fell swoop. swathes of red tape cut.
Contrast this with Wales, where DAS remains obligatory in all cases expect where a change of use, engineering/minor operations and householder works are proposed. By example, and to set the two scales apart vividly, you no longer need a DAS for 9 houses in the majority of cases in Chester from today but need one to vary the times you might want to open a cafe in Saltney.
Our clients (and we believe Councils) appreciate the way our DAS approach dovetails policy analysis, describes the approach taken to design in context and how that balances with other evidence and factors we believe are material to the desired outcome to form an hybrid Design Access and Planning Statement where relevant.
There is a distinction between a statutory DAS and a Planning Statement.
The latter in all cases is voluntary and self contained work in its own right, but is an often essentially recommended tool describing the competing forces applying to proposals in terms of design, impacts, policy and other material considerations, how the application as presented addresses them an how they should be balanced. Planning Consultants are usually well trained to undertake this sort of work and can assist in maximising impact and development value.
We all want development to be well designed and accessible but the DAS, in Wales at least, isn't as a rule delivering better or more accessible development - or at least with noticeable results that we can see. Politicians may say otherwise but frankly the quality of some of DAS we read suggests tokenism to meet minimum legislative requirements at best. Perhaps the solution is to increase the thresholds where they are required in Wales and require those which have to be prepared to be so much better. Recently commissioned research into the effectiveness of DAS in Wales should provide some clues. You can take part
here
For now, you know the cost. Please dont misjudge it for value.
