Residential Design Guide
Watford is a thriving town, with plenty of new development – often in close proximity to some of our many fine old buildings. While some of the new development that has been built in recent decades has been of a high quality, this has unfortunately not always been the case. The Residential Design Guide for Watford deals principally with the aesthetic aspects of a building's design. The guide was initially drafted for the Council by consultants Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners. After editing it was published as a draft document in two parts:
- Volume I - the 'Residential Design Guide' (RDG) and
- Volume II - the 'Householder Development Guide' (HDG)
The Council consulted on the Residential Design Guide in 2007 and published a Schedule of Responses. Since then we have considered all responses and prepared a Schedule of the Council’s Replies and Proposed Changes (click on the link to view). The submission draft of the document was approved by Watford Borough Council Cabinet on 17 November 2008. Some typographical and formatting changes need to be made before the Guide is published in its final format as soon as possible. Immediate use of the Guide is encouraged, however; therefore please use this version for the time being. Citations should always refer to the ‘Adoption Draft’ Guide. The adoption the guide can be seen below with its new title:
- Volume 1, Building New Homes, and,
- Volume 2, Extending Your Home.
Other related information:
The Statement of Matters for the Residential Design Guide (RDG): this statement sets out the SPD Matters, as required by the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004.
It is mandatory that Local Development Plan Documents such as SPDs, are subject to both Sustainability Appraisal (SA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). It is possible to undertake this through a single appraisal process and we have produced an integrated SA and SEA Consultation Draft in respect of the Residential Design Guide.
The Statement of Consultation summarises the type of community involvement that has taken place in the development of the document to this stage, which issues were raised and how procedures will be followed as a result of the consultation.
All documents mentioned above can be seen on the council's Planning Page, please follow the link at the top right of this page or follow this link : Planning Policy Homepage and then search for the Residential Design Guide.