PJA were commissioned by St Modwen Development Ltd to provide urban design and transport planning advice for a 78 ha site, located in Clay Cross, Derbyshire.
The masterplan provides for up to 900 residential dwellings, a new local centre including a new supermarket and pub, a hotel and/or care home, 5 ha of employment and significant new public open space and community woodland.
The site is situated on rural-urban fringe of the town and comprises a 50/50 split between the spent Biwater pipe works site and greenfield land.
The brownfield former pipe works site was heavily constrained by remediated land following previous coal extraction on the eastern side of the site. This presented a number of technical challenges in the delivery of the masterplan including pepper-potted mineshafts and an underground high-wall.
In addition, there were issues surrounding an underground railway tunnel running beneath the site, an existing electricity sub-station supporting the whole of Clay Cross town, as well as council ambition to run a strategic connection through the site to relieve excess congestion avoiding the nearby M1 from passing through the existing town.
