It’s where Ribena and Tarmac were invented, where Banksy, Massive Attack, JK Rowling and Lee Evans called home and where Wallace, Gromit and Morph emerged in plasticine – Bristol!”

It’s been five years since we set up our office here offering a local presence to a strong history of working on transport, engineering and placemaking projects in the area. Below we outline some of our top projects in the south west and why we cannot wait to carry on working from sunny Brizzle!

We provided transport planning and placemaking advice on the Brabazon regeneration project on the 380-acre site of the former Filton Airfield. The thriving new neighbourhood will deliver 2,700 homes and 24 hectares of employment land providing 10,000 jobs. The site will benefit from a new railway station, a new bus rapid transit route, and high-quality walking and cycle infrastructure. The development represents a £2 billion investment in Bristol by YTL. PJA secured outline planning consent for the development site, supported the development of design codes, and assisted in the successful reserved matters application for the first phase of residential development. The foundations for the first homes on the site were laid in January 2020 and they are now on the market.

Continuing with the redevelopment theme, we have been at the forefront of developing proposals to support the regeneration of Swindon Town Centre and continue to assist Swindon Borough Council on several related projects. At the heart of the town centre, PJA has led the preliminary design of a bus boulevard and enabling infrastructure with the reimagined street providing a new stage on which to deliver homes and employment. PJA also prepared a town centre microsimulation model using Vissim. The model is testing the emerging town movement study with along with planned Local Plan growth. The Bus boulevard scheme has now secured £25m of funding through the Future High Streets fund, and work is expected to start in winter 2021.

We continue to support St Modwen on major development in the south west region including employment land at Avonmouth, known as Access 18 and other strategic land interests.

From the brand new to transforming the old – assisting leading conversion developer, City & Country, on the redevelopment of a former Victorian prison in central Gloucester. This complex scheme demanded a bold development vision which included public realm elements to reveal the remains of the medieval Gloucester Castle discovered under the prison exercise yard. The project, which gained planning consent in June 2018, will deliver 202 new city-centre homes across retained listed buildings and new build elements. In conjunction with landscape architect, Grant Associates, we designed integrated urban realm, car parking, shared surface access streets and community gardens.

We’ve acted on several successful major planning applications for the replacement of landmark hotels across the south west including the Park Hotel, and The Lighthouse in Paignton and the Palace Hotel in Torquay. As well as preparing engineering designs for vehicle access and circulation for these busy establishments, we carried out transport assessments and assisted with conceptual designs. The demolition and clearance of all three sites has taken place and construction is now underway.

We continue to underpin the enhancement of south west seaside towns designing several key public realm areas in Torbay. PJA developed integrated traffic engineering, landscape and placemaking solutions for the spaces which will better manage vehicle traffic and reduce carriageway space. The revised highway arrangement will encourage vehicles to pass through the area at low-speed and the reallocation of space away from traffic allows for the public realm to be enlarged and enhanced, both of these factors will significantly improve pedestrian amenity in this area and encourage active travel.

It was confirmed at the end of 2020 that Paignton Station Square is one of the schemes in the town which will be funded by £13.4m of the Future High Streets Fund. The investment will help transform the area into a vibrant hub for future generations and protect and create jobs.

Our transport, engineering and placemaking teams worked collaboratively on enhancing Crediton High Street in a busy Devonshire market town. We planned and designed a comprehensive street engineering proposal scheme which seeks to tame the traffic, creating slower but steadier road conditions, which will foster a culture of shared use. The future scheme also aims to manage the impact of poor air quality with a Vissim model being built to test the performance of the scheme in relation to this as well as traffic capacity, bus operation and pedestrian movement terms.

We’ve been making a real impact in the South West creating strategic infrastructure masterplans for walking and cycling. Working with Cornwall Council, Plymouth Council and Wiltshire Council we’ve helped prepare Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIP) across the south west. With PJA Chairman, Phil Jones a primary author of the LCWIP Guidance and more recently LTN1/20, we have breadth and depth in our understanding of walking and cycling infrastructure second to none.

We are pleased to be a part of multi-disciplinary teams on a number of regional frameworks including the West of England Combined Authority and Devon Frameworks with WSP and the Homes England Framework.

Over the past five years we’re proud to say that we have had significant experience on all recognised Design Review Panels across the south west reviewing a range of significant urban sites across the area and advising on many greenfield development projects on how to best enhance their integration within the surrounding areas.

More recently we have begun work on several town centre and high street masterplans in Cornwall, Somerset and Bristol, renewable energy projects across the region, a Low traffic Neighbourhood in Devon, and a garden community and a net-zero carbon development in the West of England.

We’re excited to see what the next five years bring!

For more information on our transport, engineering and placemaking services in the south west, please contact our Regional Director [email protected]

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