Proposals – McCarthy Stone

The Site

McCarthy Stone, the UK’s leading developer and manager of retirement communities, is in the early stages of creating proposals for a new specialist, retirement living development on land at Straight Bit, Flackwell Heath.

McCarthy Stone is proposing to develop the site with 40 one- and two-bedroom Retirement Living apartments, as well as communal facilities, extensive landscaping, and associated car parking. Five replacement retail units will also be provided.

Sustainable Location

The current site, enclosed by Straight Bit and Old Kiln Road, is a brownfield site that has the potential to be transformed into an attractive and high-quality space for residents and their visitors to enjoy.

It is ideally located, being close to public transport links, local shops and services. The site lies a short walk from Flackwell Heath Golf Club, with large amounts of green space and farmland to the west.

Our Proposals

McCarthy Stone is bringing forward proposals to develop land at Straight Bit, Flackwell Heath, to provide a new, specialist retirement community, comprising:

A high-quality Retirement Living development featuring 40 one- and two-bedroom retirement apartments.
Self–contained Retirement Living apartments and associated facilities designed for older persons, securely accessed and connected via heated corridors.
Five replacement retail units will be provided on the ground floor fronting Straight Bit along with nine parking places at the rear.
Shared facilities within the Retirement Living development, including a residents’ lounge, guest suite, management offices, along with a high-quality landscaped communal garden and private outdoor space for residents, plus approximately 25 parking spaces.
For the wider Flackwell Heath community, this new community would provide a vital boost to the local economy as residents of this development would be expected to spend approximately £308,000 in local shops and businesses every year.
Older people downsizing would release family-sized and starter homes back onto the market, a necessity for the local housing market.

The proposal is designed to respond to the specific site conditions – physical context, surrounding character, site constraints and opportunities – and to respect the privacy and amenity of neighbouring and proposed properties.

The scheme has been developed in line with government policy and design guidance, accounting for relevant local planning policies and design guides. This model has been developed to offer an aspirational and needs-based choice for homeowners over the age of 60, significantly increasing the housing choice available for local people wishing to downsize.

Typically, most residents moving to a McCarthy Stone development move within a 5-mile radius of the development, choosing to remain part of their community and enjoy peace of mind.

McCarthy Stone developments, by their very nature, are regarded as a passive form of development and generate low traffic movements when compared with general market housing. Residents moving to a McCarthy Stone development tend to rely less on their car, and from McCarthy Stone’s experience, many relinquish it altogether after a year or so of moving in once they realise that it is no longer essential to maintaining
their independence.

Those residents who do own a car tend not to use a car in peak hours and residents would not need to use a car on a day-to-day basis due to the site’s sustainable location

Our Approach to Design

In order to ensure the proposal displays the best design possible, care is taken to investigate the architectural landscape of the area.

Before we begin designing any proposal, our team of architects spend time researching the architecture and character of the local area to ensure a sensitive design that is in keeping with its surroundings.

We are committed to ensuring our development is sustainable and will seek to utilise locally sourced and A-rated materials, wherever possible.

We have carefully considered our design, to breathe life into a disused brownfield site. Our proposals bring 40 apartments in total, split evenly between 20 2-bed apartments and 20 1-bed apartments. This presents an exciting opportunity to bring forward high-quality, low maintenance homes to the area. We believe that these will provide genuine choice for older people so they can continue to live locally in a home that meets their needs and aspirations in their later years

Outdoor Spaces

We seek to ensure that all our developments benefit from high-quality outside space for our residents to enjoy.

Many of our schemes have won awards for their outside space, and our developments are designed to blend in with their surroundings, achieved through quality gardens and landscaping.

The proposals include an appealing landscape design throughout the shared outdoor garden, private outdoor spaces, throughout the development and along the site boundary. Protecting biodiversity is a priority, with extensive tree and shrub planting aimed at enriching the site’s habitats.

Building Sensitively

As part of our efforts to ensure the development embraces and reflects the existing area, we have taken a number of steps to ensure the design is sensitive its surroundings while still delivering on the need for retirement homes in the area.

Our developments are designed to blend in with their surroundings. We recognise that high quality gardens and landscaping turn a good development into a great one, and we are pleased that many of our schemes have won awards for their outside space.

Most of the building materials will be manufactured in the UK and supplied direct or through builder’s merchants. These materials will be sourced locally where feasible. All timber to be used in the construction will be sourced from renewable sources with
FSC certificates.

Resources

Exhibition Boards pdf 30.9MB Site Plan jpg 116KB

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