7. Site Specific Allocations

The Homes and Communities Agency and the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation have assisted the Council in both property acquisition costs and in part funding the preparation of the masterplan for the site which has formed the basis for the Site Specific Allocation. Further funding for the implementation of the Skills Centre will be provided by the Learning and Skills Council and the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

The scheme will be delivered by the Council in partnership with a large retail operator.

The ground floors of all 3 frontages are in mixed commercial uses with a predominance of A1 and A3 uses. Upper floors are in residential, storage or office uses although the upper floors of the London Road (no 37-57) and North Street (no 14-42) frontages are vacant, following decanting of Council tenants during 2007.

The East Street shops form one of the primary shopping frontages of the town centre. The Methodist Church fronts onto London Road whilst the heart of the site is occupied by a few small scale commercial uses to the rear of the shops and a Council owned pay and display surface car park.

• A large food/non food store together with a number of individual A1 and A3 units.
• New homes.
• A skills centre for young people and adults
• Shoppers car park.
• New market square to accommodate stalls relocated because of East London Transit.
• Extension to the existing Methodist Church to improve< facilities
• Green open space.

A scheme providing these uses will be encouraged and permitted provided that it:

• Takes full account of the Abbey and Barking Town Centre Conservation Area Character Appraisal and, in particular, respects and enhances the setting of the nearby Magistrates Court listed building and the heritage assets opposite on Abbey Green.
• Ensures a high quality public realm throughout the scheme but particularly for the new market square by landscaping and use of the Barking Code for hard surfaced areas.
• Provides active frontages at ground floor fronting onto the Market Square.
• Restricts building heights to a maximum of 10 storeys at the junction of London Road and North Street.
• Encourages use by non car borne shoppers by incorporating good pedestrian linkages to bus stops in London Road and North Street.
• Improves pedestrian routes between London Road and East Street.
• Will not have unacceptable impacts on bus operations or journey times.
• Will not have unacceptable traffic impacts on the strategic and /or local highway network and is accompanied by any necessary improvements to the local road system such as alterations to the North Street/London Road junction.

The site is in a single private ownership and the development will be brought forward and developed by the private sector.   

Industrial estate containing a number of low grade industrial and commercial uses which severely detract from the character of Barking Town Centre and the River Roding.

• New homes 
• Shops, restaurants, cafes, takeaways  and bars   
• Community facilities including a creche

A scheme providing these uses will be encouraged and permitted provided that: 

• The density of the housing elements of the development 67 and its phasing reflects the level of public transport accessibility of the site. 
• Vehicular access is taken from the A406. 
• It utilises the River Roding as an informal leisure and amenity asset, minimises any risk of its pollution and enhances its ecological value. 
• It provides a pedestrian and cycle route along the river. 
• It accommodates the route of and a bridge across the River Roding for the Barking to Royal Docks Bus Corridor. 
• It improves links to Barking Town Centre by accommodating the landing of a pedestrian/cyclist bridge across the River Roding linking to the Cultural Industries Quarter. 
• It potentially, includes a tall building but only if it is of exemplary design, is located at the northern end of the site and it fully respects the significance and setting of the adjacent Abbey and Barking Town Centre Conservation Area and the grade II listed Granary on the Town Quay. It must also respect the amenity and biodiversity value of the river.
• It includes area(s) of open space and children’s play space to serve the new residential community.
• It makes provision for the rationalisation and improvement of boat moorings with improved servicing facilities. 
• It demonstrates to the Council and the Environment Agency’s satisfaction (through the submission of a detailed flood risk assessment and the implementation of any necessary prevention or mitigation measures) that it will reduce the flood risk and the potential intensity of flooding both within the scheme and in the local area. 

The Council, LTGDC, Transport for London and the public transport operators will all be involved in the planning, funding and implementation of the transport infrastructure elements of the overall scheme whilst the private sector will deliver the commercial and residential development elements. 

Mixed uses including railway station, bus stops and taxi rank retail, residential, and commercial.

• Improved transport interchange 
• Shops, restaurants, cafes  
• Office and other commercial uses including leisure  
• Hotel 
• New homes

• Respects and conserves the scale, height and setting of the existing grade II listed station building and the grade II listed Baptist Tabernacle and the character and setting of the Abbey and Barking Town Centre Conservation Area. 
• Sites on or immediately adjacent to the station concourse are not suitable for tall buildings, taking into account CABE and English Heritage ‘Guidance on Tall Buildings’ (2007), in order to respect the historic significance and setting of the grade II listed station building. 
• Any tall buildings are of the highest design quality.   
• Takes account of structural capacity of the Station Road bridge over the railway. 
• Promotes and intensifies retail, employment, leisure and residential uses and opportunities for mixed-use development. 
• Enhances public realm and provides strong and attractive arrival to the town centre. 
• Incorporates the route of and facilities for East London Transit and the Barking to Royal Docks Bus Corridor, including a standing area for ELT Phase 1b and BRDBC vehicles. 
• Improves bus stop arrangements and provides bus standing room and associated driver facilities. 
• Creates improved passenger entrances to the station in order to reduce peak hour congestion. 
• Resolves the current conflicts between those accessing the station and passengers waiting for buses. 
• Rationalises the arrangements for taxis. 
• Improves access to the station for people with disabilities. 
• Improves pedestrian links to residential areas and the rest of the town centre, possibly by new entrances such as from Wakering Road. 
• Improves personal safety by increasing natural surveillance of walking routes and introducing additional security measures such as CCTV. 
• Offers safe and direct cyclist access to the station from the surrounding area and provides covered and secure cycle parking. 
• Incorporates sustainable urban drainage techniques to minimise surface water run off and improve water quality.   

Funding from the DCLG/GLA Estate Renewal Grant, English Partnerships and the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation have assisted the Council in both property acquisition costs and the preparation of the masterplan for the site which has formed the basis for the Site Specific Allocation. 

Now a cleared site following demolition in 2008 but formerly was a 1960’s Council housing estate (called The Lintons) comprising 1 high and 2 medium height blocks and 256 homes together with the former Abbey Works factory.

• Barking Business Centre 
• New homes  
• Community facility and corner shop 
• A new communal public space and a series of play spaces 

• Ensures no overall loss of affordable housing. 
• Incorporates a community facility, a corner shop and some communal open space and children’s play areas. 
• Recreates the traditional street pattern and better connects the site to the surrounding area. 
• Improves the pedestrian subway under the Northern Relief Road 
• Provides some tall buildings.  
• Incorporates a Home Zone.  
• Provides reduced levels of car parking for housing and no parking for the Business Centre. 
• Ensures a high quality public realm through high quality amenity space and use of the Barking Code for landscaped areas.
• Incorporates sustainable urban drainage techniques to minimise surface water run off and improve water quality.

• Provides active street frontages and vibrant ground floor uses.
• Provides a creative design solution and iconic building. 
• In its building heights and design, respects and avoids adverse visual impacts on the nearby Town Hall and Broadway Theatre. 
• Allows for continuity of operation of the Abbey Sports Centre.  
• Ensures safety and security for car park users including 77the provision of CCTV. 
• Uses the Barking Code for associated public realm work. 
• Reflects the London Plan density of between 215 and 405 units per hectare in any housing element. 
• Includes an underground recycling bank within the scheme. 

Captain Cook Public House and car park, the Axe Street  Drugs Project, Sure Start premises, Abbey Sports Centre and the temporary Wellington Street surface car park.

• New homes  
• Inclusion of small scale commercial and/or community uses along the St Paul’s Road frontages to provide vitality to the area, active frontages and an area of transition between the Gascoigne and the town centre
• Additional primary educational facilities on the site of the Council Depot on the north side of the Shaftsburys. 

• Offers varying housing densities in line with the London Plan policies throughout the site with highest densities at the northern end closest to the town centre. 
• Involves no overall loss of social housing and provides 40% family housing. 
• Improves pedestrian permeability, removing the estate feel and particularly enhancing east-west routes and links to the Cultural Industry Quarter and the River Roding. 
• Any tall buildings are of the highest design quality and create safe and attractive spaces around their entrances.  
• It includes area(s) of open space and children’s play space to serve the new residential community. 
• Creates smaller neighbourhoods and delivers a sustainable community through a more diverse housing mix. 
• Offers existing residents the opportunity to return to new homes in the area.  
• Downgrades the traffic function of St Paul’s Road (including the possible conversion of the existing roundabout to a traffic light junction) in order to reduce severance and provide better integration between the Gascoigne and the town centre. 
• Implements traffic management measures (particularly in King Edward Road and Gascoigne Road) to deter extraneous traffic from using the area. 
• Addresses community safety and designing out 80crime  
• Provides a better relationship with the employment land at the southern end of the estate. 
• Facilitates better bus services including making provision for the Barking to Royal Docks Bus Corridor and ensuring traffic management measure are designed to enable effective bus access and usage.  
• Demonstrates to the Council and the Environment Agency’s satisfaction (through the submission of a detailed flood risk assessment) that it will reduce the flood risk and the potential intensity of flooding both within the scheme and in the local area.

The whole of the site is in private sector ownership. In 2009, the owners produced a masterplan for the site which reflected the land uses and design requirements of this allocation.

The housing and commercial use elements of the allocation will be developed by the private sector.

Retail warehouse park with associated car parking and a
small office block in the north east corner.

Acceptable uses on this site would be:

• New homes
• Ancillary leisure use such as restaurants, cafes orbars and local shopping
• A retail superstore (subject to the linked redevelopment of the existing Tesco site on Highbridge Road for residential use)

A scheme providing these uses will be encouraged and
permitted provided that it:

• Will not have unacceptable traffic impacts on the strategic and /or local highway network.
• Improves the public transport accessibility of the site by, for instance, changes to local bus routes and stops.
• Improves pedestrian and cyclist access from the town centre, across Abbey Green and along the River Roding this may include enabling the provision of a new bridge across the River Roding.
• Minimises any risk of pollution to the River Roding and enhances the informal recreational and biodiversity value of the riverbank by sympathetic handling of frontage to the river.
• Delivers a residential development within the 140 – 355 units per hectare density range.
• Provides a very high quality of design and layout that preserves or enhances the character of adjacent Conservation Areas, the setting of the adjacent Barking Abbey and the views from Abbey Green.
• Demonstrates that any tall buildings are of the highest design quality.
• Provides a heritage statement which evidences how the development preserves or enhances the character of the Conservation Area and enhances the setting of the listed buildings and Scheduled Ancient Monument.
• Includes areas of open space/children’s play space to serve the new residential community.
• Demonstrates to the Council and the Environment Agency’s satisfaction (through the submission of a detailed flood risk assessment) that it will not increase the risk or the potential intensity of flooding both within the scheme and in the local area.

Several external capital funding opportunities have been identified to take the project forward and bids, supported by LTGDC, have been submitted to the Department of Communities and Local Government and the Mayor of London. Section 106 contributions from town centre
developments and, in particular those fronting onto the green will also be important.

The project will be overseen by a Project Steering Group comprising Council representatives along with external parties such as Design for London, London Thames Gateway Development Corporation and English Partnerships.

Open Space, St Margaret’s Church, the Curfew Tower, St Margaret’s C of E School, St Joseph’s RC School and the ruins of Barking Abbey.

Enhanced open space and improved visitor and heritage interpretation facilities so that Abbey Green can be a destination in itself as well as a pleasant link between the town centre and the historic Town Quay and waterfront.

Any scheme must provide:

• An enhanced contribution to the Conservation Areas and respect for the listed buildings and Abbey Green’s status as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
• The creation of strong pedestrian and cycle routes across the Green in order to encourage strong linkages between the town centre and Town Quay and the historic riverfront.
• High quality play opportunities.
• Protection and improvement of any biodiversity value together with additional tree and shrub planting as well as herbaceous gardens.
• Sustainable urban drainage techniques to minimise surface water run off and to improve water quality.
• Top quality furniture including additional seating.
• Lighting improvements.
• Public Art.
• Screening of the Abbey Retail Park site with trees and shrubs.

Although the Cultural Industries Quarter has been a long standing aspiration of the Council and some of the earlier refurbishment of the Malthouse building was undertaken by the Council, the key implementing body will be the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC).

LTGDC commissioned the River Roding Masterplan (September 2008) and a planning application for the majority of the site was submitted in November 2008. The Corporation has also acquired or is in the process of acquiring (either by negotiation or compulsory purchase) a number of pieces of land to implement the scheme.

LTGDC are currently looking to identify and then appoint private sector partner(s) to undertake the development and to provide the ongoing management of the Cultural Industries Quarter.

The Council and LTGDC are working with TfL to secure the funding for and the implementation of the Barking to Royal Docks Bus Corridor scheme which passes through the site and which is essential to its development along the lines set out in this Allocation. The route is depicted on the Inset Proposals Map and will be safeguarded for the duration of the Plan period. There will be a need for Section 106 contributions from the developer towards the cost of BRDT provision and particularly the funding for the public transport bridge across the river.

The planning application approved in May 2009 does not cover the whole of the Site Specific Allocation as the LTGDC were unable to reach agreement about the inclusion of the site of Sharleston Wharf to the north. This element of the Site Specific Allocation including the pedestrian bridge will be implemented independently and is, again, expected to be delivered by 2012.

Predominantly existing and former low grade commercial and industrial uses and the now vacant site of the former Fishing Smack Public House, although parts of the Malthouse have already been refurbished and brought into use for cultural and creative industries purposes.

A mixed use scheme comprising:

• Workshops and studios for cultural and creative industries and an element of B1 office use, provided it is associated with and ancillary to cultural and creative uses.
• Cultural and creative activities within Use Class D1 such as a museum, art gallery, exhibition hall or nonresidential education and training centre.
• Restaurant, pub, snack bar, cafe and/or wine bar, provided that they are ancillary to and do not dominate the cultural and creative uses.
• New homes.

A scheme providing these uses will be encouraged and
permitted provided that it:

• Is in character with the Abbey Road Riverside Conservation Area.
• Facilitates improved public transport access to the area including accommodating the route of a new public transport bridge across the River Roding for the Barking to Royal Docks Bus Corridor.
• Accommodates a new pedestrian and cycle bridge across the River Roding linking it to the Fresh Wharf site.
• Provides a new public square within the scheme, a positive frontage to the river and high quality landscaping along Abbey Road.
• Minimises any risk of pollution to the River Roding
• Enhances the informal recreational and biodiversity value of the riverbank by sympathetic handling of the frontage to the river.
• Facilitates public access to and along the river frontage.
• Protects and enhances the historic Malthouse and Granary buildings.
• Ensures the recording of any archaeological remains including any former ice houses.
• Includes a creche.
• Demonstrates to the Council and the Environment Agency’s satisfaction (through the submission of a detailed flood risk assessment and the implementation of any necessary prevention or mitigation measures) that it will not increase the risk or the potential intensity of flooding both within the scheme and in the local area.

The shopping centre is privately owned and it is expected  that the owners will implement the scheme themselves.

Covered shopping mall with associated car park.

A scheme providing these uses will be encouraged and
permitted provided that:

• It reviews car parking provision and servicing arrangements to encourage a more efficient use of the site and a reduced impact on the local road system.
• The Station Parade facade provides a fitting response to its location opposite Barking Station.
• The quality of pedestrian movement through both the shopping centre itself and St Awdrey’s Walk is improved.
• It addresses the need for enhanced integration of the scheme into the town centre.
• A sympathetic relationship with the houses in Vicarage Drive is provided and residents’ environment protected.
• Conserve or enhance the significance including its setting of St Margaret’s Vicarage (Cosco House), a grade II listed building.
• Conserve or enhance the significance including its setting, and views in and out of the Abbey and Barking Town Centre Conservation Area.

A mixed use scheme comprising:

• Additional homes
• Business and commercial uses
• Small scale shopping to serve the local community

A scheme providing these uses will be encouraged and permitted provided that :

• The commercial uses fronting onto the A13, provide an attractive frontage to it and a buffer from it for the homes to be built on the site.
• There is no overall loss of employment.
• It facilitates better bus services both to the site and within the wider Gascoigne Estate.
• Demonstrates to the Council and the Environment Agency’s satisfaction (through the submission of a detailed flood risk assessment and the implementation of any necessary prevention or mitigation measures) that it will reduce flood risk or the potential intensity of flooding both within the scheme and in the local area.