News

12 Jan 21

Dorset County Council have granted planning permission for circa 320 two and three storey homes in Wimborne, Dorset. The Bloor Home Southern Wimborne West development on a greenfield site will follow a previous phase of work, Wimborne East. Once complete, the whole development will provide 630 new homes in total.

Clarkebond engineers are finalising construction status drawings in preparation for the imminent start on this challenging site.

Having worked on the first phase of the development which was brought forward in several separate parcels, Clarkebond engineers used lessons learned from the first phase to ease the planning process for the second phase.

“Our experience of the first phase of this development enabled us to take an approach which, whilst involving more work in the short term, shortened the planning process and resulted in a smoother passage to approval of engineering matters,” commented Jamie Penney, Clarkebond Civil Engineer.

Clarkebond are providing civil, structural and ground engineering services on the scheme which has not been without its engineering challenges.  

Taking cues from the approvals associated with the adjoining east site, Clarkebond determined that a single application, rather than phased applications, for technical approval of drainage and highways would be more efficient. 

On the east site development, the local authority had imposed more onerous design criteria for greenfield runoff and climate change allowances than were required by planning guidelines. Rather than rehash the same arguments as to why this was unreasonable and have to adapt a mature design to meet the more onerous requirements, Clarkebond went straight to the more onerous conditions from the outset, thereby reducing the time taken to get approvals and resulting in a design that was always intended to deliver the restricted outflows.

Engineering Challenges

Topography was quite challenging as part of the site is quite steeply sloping and all potential development space had to be fully used. The requirement was to use the space by building on a flat surface without creating slab steps. This makes construction more straightforward and more economical, but the design more challenging! 

It was therefore necessary to incorporate re-profiling of the land into the design. Clarkebond engineers used the latest 3D visualisation responsive software to carry out the detailed plot design.

A ground investigation and flood risk assessment indicated that whilst part of the site was suitable for the installation of a soakaway, potential flooding of a nearby river might impact the ground water levels and thereby compromise the exfiltration depths of the soakaway.

To satisfy the Environment Agency’s requirements and to allow the project to progress, the soakaway solution was switched to a traditional attenuated solution which involved larger tanks but allowed us to get planning at the right time.

Developer: Bloor Homes
Engineers: Clarkebond