REGIONAL PLANNING GUIDANCE: SUPPLEMENTARY GUIDANCE FOR LONDON ON THE PROTECTION OF STRATEGIC VIEWS

Transcription

1 Department of the Environment REGIONAL PLANNING GUIDANCE: RPG3 Annex A November 1991 SUPPLEMENTARY GUIDANCE FOR LONDON ON THE PROTECTION OF STRATEGIC VIEWS Introduction The Secretary of State issued Strategic Planning Guidance for London in July 1989 to assist London Boroughs in the preparation of their Unitary Development Plans (UDPs). This was reproduced in September 1989 as Regional Planning Guidance: Strategic Guidance for London (RPG3). Paragraph 70 of RPG3 promised further guidance from the Secretary of State on the protection of strategic views. In August 1989 the Department advised the Chief Planning Officers of the City of London and the London Boroughs that strategic views of national importance should be safeguarded and included in their UDPs. Nine strategic views were identified, seven of St Paul s Cathedral and two of the Palace of Westminster, all of which traversed more than one.borough and could be obscured by new development. An informal officers Working Party, convened by the City of London and comprising the affected London Boroughs, the London Docklands Development Corporation and the London Planning Advisory Committee has considered the practical aspects of achieving the protection of views of St Paul s Cathedral. Officers from Westminster, Camden and Lambeth prepared similar advice on views of the Palace of Westminster. The proposals which emanated from these two groups formed the basis of the consultation letter Guidance on the Protection of Strategic Views which was issued by the Department in November After careful consideration of all the responses received, the Secretary of State has decided that the nine strategic views originally identified, together with an additional view from Blackheath Point to St Paul s Cathedral, should be afforded protection. These should be included in appropriate Unitary Development Plans.

2 DIAGRAM L Plan and Cross-Section of Areas of Consultation for St. Paul s Cathedral Development Plane Threshold Height 52.1mAOD 300m 440m DIAGRAM 2. Plan and Cross-Section of Areas of Consultation for the Palace of Westminster Development Plane Threshold Height 43.5m AOD 300m VC WSCA BCA x Viewing Corridor Wider Consultation Setting Area Background Consultation Area Viewpoint Outermost points oi viewing area

3 The ten strategic views are: Consultation Areas for each strategic view are illustrated on the accompanying map Primrose Hill to St Paul s Cathedral Primrose Hill to the Palace of Westminster Protective Directions and Consultation 3. Parliament Hill to St Paul s Cathedral Requirements 4. Parliament Hill to the Palace of Westminster The Secretary of State for the Environment has 5. Kenwood to St Paul s Cathedral made separate Directions under the Town and 6. Alexandra Palace to St Paul s Cathedral Country Planning General Development Order 7. GreenwichPark to St Paul s Cathedral 1988 to help protect each strategic view of St Paul s Cathedral and the Palace ofwestminster 8. Blackheath Point to St Paul s Cathedral from inappropriate development. These 9. Richmond Park (King Henry VIII s Directions came into force on 2 October Mound) to St Paul s Cathedral 10. Westminster Pier to St Paul s Cathedral The Directions include Ordnance Survey grid reference points which delineate the extent of The View Points and Viewing Corridors each Viewing Corridor, Background Consultation Area and, where appropriate, A precise view point has been identified for Wider Setting Consultation Area. They also set each view. From each view point a wedge out the circumstances where consultations on shaped Viewing Corridor extends to a planning applications for developments which maximum width of 300m at either St Paul s could affect the strategic views should be under- Cathedral or the Palace of Westminster, as taken by the responsible authority (ie. the local appropriate (see Diagrams 1 and 2). The width planning authority in whose borough the planof the Viewing Corridors at St Paul s Cathedral fling application lies). Where the responsible from Richmond Park and Westminster Pier are authority is minded to grant permission against less than 300 metres however because these the advice of another local planning authority views are restricted in the foreground by trees involved in protecting that view, the Direction or buildings, requires the application to be submitted to the Department of the Enviromnent to assess Wider Setting Consultation Areas whether it should be called in for the Secretary Many of the view points are within wider of State s determination. viewing areas from which the Cathedral or the If the height of a proposed development within Palace may be seen. In order to afford these a Viewing Corridor would exceed the developviewing areas some protection Wider Setting ment plane between the view point and either, Consultation Areas (WSCAs) have been defined the base of the lower drum of St Paul s for eight of the strategic views. In the case of St Cathedral or, the general roof line of the Palace Paul s Cathedral the WSCAs increase the width of Westminster, it should normally be refused. of protection given to the skyline profile at the dome by 70m eachside of the Viewing Corridor Although the restrictions on the height of devel- (see Diagram 1). Due to existing development, opments within the WSCAs and BCAs are not the width of protection at the Palace of as rigid as in the Viewing Corridors, where Westminster remains at 300m. threshold heights are exceeded the responsible authority is similarly required to consult on the BackgroundConsultation Areas potential impact of the proposed development Background Consultation Areas (BCAs) serve with the other local planning authorities to protect the back-drop to the views of St involved in protecting the view. Paul s Cathedral and the Palace of Westminster All consultation responses should be made from unsuitable development which would within 14 days as set out in Article 18(4) of the reduce their visibility or setting. Each view has a BCA which is based on cross projections of Town and Development Country Planning General Order Any consultation the sight lines from the outermost points of the with bodies other than those named in the viewing areas beyond St Paul s Cathedral and Direction will be at the discretion of the the Palace of Westminster for a specified distance (see Diagrams 1 and 2). As the Richmond responsible local authority. The measures for Park and Westminster Pier views do not have protecting strategic views, as outlined above and specified in the Directions, apply to all pro- WSCAs, the BCAs are delineated simply by posals for high buildings including the extending their Viewing Corridors beyond St replacement of buildings which currently Paul scathedral. obstruct or mar the views and proposals for The Viewing Corridors, Wider Setting buildings within the shadow of existing high Consultation Areas and Background buildings.

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5 Allowance for the effect of the Earth s Curvature and Refraction of Light In assessing whether a proposal would breach any of the development plane threshold heights of a view, account should be taken of the curvature of the earth and refraction of light by the earth s atmosphere. The combined effects of curvature and refraction will be to curve the datum ABC into the shape A1 B C1 as illustrated below. The Ordnance Survey advises that in order to calculate the maximum permitted height of a proposed development at point B, the following formula should be applied to reduce the AOD heights at A (the viewpoint) and C (the object): AA1 = (AB)2 metres CC1 = (BC)2 metres both AB and BC being measured in Kilometres Once these corrections have been applied to the height values of the viewpoint and the object, simple geometry can be used to calculate the maximum permitted height of the proposed development. Requests for copies of the Directions should be made to: Department of the Environment, London Regional Planning Office, Room 2533, Millbank Tower, Millbank, London SW1P 4QU, (tel: ). Printed in the United Kingdom for HMSO. Dd , 11/91, C /4, 5673,

6 Crown copyright 1991 Applications for reproduction should be made to HMSO First published 1991 Recycted Paper HMSO publications are available from: HMSO Publications Centre (Mail and telephone orders only) P0 Box 276, London, SW8 5DT Telephone orders General enquiries (queuing system in operation for both numbers) HMSO Bookshops 49 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6HB (counter service only) 258 Broad Street, Birmingham, B1 2HE Southey House, 33 Wine Street, Bristol, BS1 2BQ (0272) Princess Street, Manchester, M60 8AS Chichester Street, Belfast, BT1 4JY (0232) Lothian Road, Edinburgh, EH3 9AZ HMSO s Accredited Agents (see Yellow Pages) and through good booksellers