Part Two: Centres and Site Allocations (Regulation 18)

Policy DLPH3 Urban Character and Appearance in Halesowen

1. All new development within the plan area shall:
   1. Respect and respond to the local distinctiveness and existing context of established built form, scale, and massing that presents the broad urban townscape of the Inset Plan area. This includes locally distinctive plot widths, building heights, building proportion, roofscapes, form, materials, distinctive style, and historical relationship of the pattern of building in its sense of enclosure of the streets on which it stands.
   2. Provide for, and take opportunities to, enhance active frontages at the interface between public and private spaces, in particular those fronting the ring road and River Stour, reduce the physical and visual impact of vehicles and service areas, and enable a clear distinction between public and private spaces.
       
2. The choice of which locally distinctive elements are incorporated into the design of a development, and the degree to which they are incorporated, depends upon the location of the proposal, and the function the building serves in the townscape as described by other Policies in this Plan:
   1. In the High Street / Hagley Street Character Area developments will incorporate a high degree of locally distinctive elements.
   2. Outside of this area, developments have the option of using a smaller choice and degree of locally distinctive elements provided that the overall character of the Town Centre is not prejudiced.
       
3. Developments can incorporate elements not described as 'locally distinctive' or be of a more contemporary style provided that the overall design of the development does not harm the achievement of a locally distinctive Town Centre.

Policy DLPH4 Halesowen Town Design- Landmarks, Views, Vistas and Gateways

1. All new development should have regard to Policy DLP4, Policy DLP39 and Policy DLP55 to deliver high quality design.

2. New development and proposed alterations to existing buildings should:
   1. Enhance the sense of arrival by improving existing gateways and where appropriate create new ones that reinforce principal routes and spaces (see also Policy DLP4).
   2. Create architectural corner features and new landmark features to improve the understanding of the town where appropriate;
   3. Safeguard and enhance local and important views, vistas, landmarks and gateways within and at the edges of the town centre.
   4. Protect key gateway buildings that give the town character and respect building lines, where appropriate, to assist the continuity of the town's heritage and help secure and improve views and vistas.
   5. Respect the height and mass and visibility of existing Halesowen landmarks. Such landmarks should not be overwhelmed by new development, nor their setting compromised. Consideration of the effect on setting has regard to the importance of the landmark, the extent of any harm, and the benefit arising from development.
   6. Ensure that new buildings have a scale, mass, height and impact that is responsive to its context and sensitive to its roofscape/skyline.
   7. Create variations in roofscape that will respect important local and strategic views.
   8. Ensure that larger development facades and rooflines should reduce their scale and massing by subdividing into smaller architectural elements.
       
3. Where new development is likely to have an impact on an identified view, skyline or landmark, accurate visual representations will be required as part of any development proposals. Choice of materials and finishes need careful consideration to protect and enhance the existing design context.
    
4. The following landmarks, gateways, views, and vistas should be protected and enhanced where possible in accordance with the above Policy considerations:
   1. Strategic Landmark (Positive):
      • SLP1- Church of St. John the Baptist
         
   2. Local Landmarks (Positive):
      • LLP1- Somers Square (Hagley Street/Great Cornbow)
      • LLP2- Hobbs, 27 Great Cornbow - office of Halesowen BID
      • LLP3- The Lyttleton Arms (former) & 87-89 High Street (no. 15 Halesowen Architectural Heritage Trail)­­­­
      • LLP4- Former Methodist Church, Birmingham Street (no. 16 Halesowen Architectural Heritage Trail)­­­­ – known locally as Benjamin's after a former occupier (now vacant)
      • LLP5- Whitefriars, 6-8 Church Lane (no. 19 Halesowen Architectural Heritage Trail)­­­­
      • LLP6- 32 High Street (currently Little Acorns)
      • LLP7- The George Inn, 16 High Street (no. 28 Halesowen Architectural Heritage Trail)­­­­
      • LLP8- Church of St. John the Baptist Mortuary Chapel, Hales Road (no. 31 Halesowen Architectural Heritage Trail)­­­­
      • LLP9- Cornbow Bridge (no. 9 Halesowen Architectural Heritage Trail - ­­­­start of walking routes from Halesowen Town Centre to either The Leasowes; or to Old Hill Station, Hawne Basin/Dudley No. 2 Canal Walks and Coombeswood Walks)
      • LLP10- Meriden House, 6 Great Cornbow (former Fox Inn) (no. 11 Halesowen Architectural Heritage Trail)­­­­
      • LLP11- 1 Summer Hill, former bank (currently Jordans Solicitors)
         
   3. Edge Gateway
      • EG1- Halesowen bus station
      • EG2- A458 Stourbridge Road / Furnace Lane / Grammar School Lane / A458 Earls Way island
      • EG3- Rumbow (from A458)
      • EG4- Grange Road junction with the Queensway (pedestrian entrance via subway link under the Queensway & vehicular entrance via primary roads)
      • EG5- A459 Queensway / B4183 Hagley Road island
      • EG6- Laurel Lane (pedestrian entrance via subway link under the Queensway)
      • EG7- Summer Hill (pedestrian entrance via controlled crossing point over the Queensway)
      • Inner Gateway:
      • IG1- Bull Ring
         
5. Development should have regard to and respect the following important views and vistas:
   1. Panoramic Views (View Cone) in/out of Halesowen:
      • PV1- From Hagley Road to St. John the Baptist's Church
      • PV2- From Bundle Hill looking eastwards over Highfields Estate to The Queensway/Bromsgrove Road
      • PV3- From Furnace Lane to St. John the Baptist's Church
      • PV4- From Earls Way to St. John the Baptist's Church
         
6. Strategic View:
   • SV1- From Highfields Park, looking northeast over Highfields Estate to St. John the Baptist's Church
   • SV2- From Stourbridge Road to St. John the Bapti­­st's Church
   • SV3- From Furnace Lane to St. John the Baptist's Church
   • SV4- From the junction of Siviter Street/Cobham Road looking southwest to St. John the Baptist's Church
      
7. Vista:
   • V1- Laurel Lane to Queensway
   • V2- Cornbow Bridge to Little Cornbow
   • V3- White Friars to St. John the Baptist's Church

Local View:

• LV1- Summer Hill to High Street (in both directions)
• LV2- Rumbow to St. John the Baptist's Church
• LV3- Bull Ring to St. John the Baptist's Church
• LV4- Cobham Road, looking northwest over the River Stour to St. John the Baptist's Church
• LV5- Birmingham Street to St. John the Baptist's Church
• LV6- Centre Lane to St. John the Baptist's Church
• LV7- Cornbow Bridge to Little Cornbow/Bull Ring

Policy DLPH5 Public Realm in Halesowen

1. The quality of streets and open spaces will be improved through development proposals or local initiatives having regard to the following measures:
   1. The provision of high-quality hard and soft landscaping, street furniture, lighting, signage and public art to help create a clear identity for Halesowen Town Centre. Developers are encouraged to prepare strategies to coordinate the choice and location of these features, including their role in linking places.
   2. Mature tree planting and other soft landscape elements to assist the 'greening' and ecological enhancement of the Town Centre.
   3. Streets and spaces will be designed so that pedestrians, cyclists, people with disabilities and vehicles can mix safely.
   4. Landscape proposals should create a safe, attractive, and comfortable external environment for all to enjoy, where the safety and security of people and properties is not compromised.
   5. All new development and townscape and landscape enhancements are required to be designed with ease of access for all users as a prime consideration at the outset. Proposals should be in accordance with Dudley Council's Access for All Supplementary Planning Document and are required to incorporate an Access Statement that shows how the principles of inclusive design have been integrated.
   6. Existing landscape features will be protected where they make a significant contribution to the street scene.
   7. Development in the vicinity of the various green spaces and features that already exist and those identified for improvement or enhancement on the Policies Map will be required to preserve their landscape character.

(1) Policy DLPH6 Landscape and Public Realm/Open Space Network in Halesowen

1. Development should safeguard existing open space provision from loss or harm and provide new spaces to create a hierarchy of inspiring landscape and public realm projects to form a unique selling point for and improve the image of Halesowen Town Centre.

2. Development proposals should:
   1. Consider and provide ways of increasing the amount of on-site amenity green space and publicly accessible natural and semi-natural green space within the Town Centre (in particular at the north-eastern area of the Town Centre). Dudley Council's 'Open Space, Sport and Recreation' Supplementary Planning Document gives further guidance.
   2. Provide a hierarchy of external spaces that have clarity of purpose and function, demonstrating an understanding of the need for the retention of existing or creation of new landscape elements and spaces.
   3. Provide a range for choice and opportunity for children's play, including for children with disabilities where appropriate.
   4. Reflect and enhance the local identity of parks, open spaces and the public realm.
   5. Make the most of past heritage by retaining and integrating structures that can become the focus and setting for newly created or re-invigorated landscapes and public realm.
   6. Integrate green infrastructure within the building design as an intrinsic part of the scheme's landscape strategy and enhancement of biodiversity. Green infrastructure includes such things as green roof and wall technology, and sustainable drainage.
   7. Be adaptable and flexible to changing social, physical and environmental needs.
   8. Provide spaces that help link communities together and reduce severance, seek opportunities for environmental enhancement of the connections, create connections where sections are missing, encourage public use or enhance their value for biodiversity as appropriate.
   9. Employ remediation techniques where possible to bring contaminated and lower quality land back into use.
3. The following public open spaces, as shown on the Landscape and Public Realm Map, will be protected, enhanced or created as part of development proposals and other initiatives:
   • Queensway south of St. John the Baptist's Church (enhanced space)
   • The River Stour (created and enhanced space) as part of a new bridge connection gateway space
   • Summer Hill (created space)
   • Great Cornbow, Little Cornbow and Bull Ring (enhanced space)
   • Rumbow/Fingerpost Gardens (enhanced)
   • Hagley Road (enhanced space)
   • Birmingham Road (enhanced space)
   • St John the Baptist's Church and wider cemetery/graveyard (protected space)
   • White Friars and environs (protected space)

Policy DLPH7 Conservation and Enhancement of Local Character and Distinctiveness in Halesowen

1. All development proposals should take account of the locally distinctive character of the area in which they are to be sited, including its historic character, and should respect and respond to its positive attributes. Physical assets (buildings, sites, or areas together with their settings) whether man-made or natural that positively contribute to the local character and distinctiveness of Halesowen's landscape and townscape should be retained and wherever possible enhanced and their settings be respected.

2. New development in Halesowen should be designed so as to reinforce and enhance local distinctiveness and full reference should be made in Design and Access Statements accompanying planning applications to the Halesowen Urban Historic Landscape Characterisation. Design and Access Statements should clearly set out the steps that have been taken to achieve locally responsive outcomes through either traditional or more contemporary design solutions.
    
3. In respect of major individual developments or in relation to particularly environmentally sensitive areas, developers may in future themselves be required to commission more detailed "Local Area Character Appraisals" (as defined in the Dudley Historic Environment supplementary planning document, SPD) to inform specific land use proposals more fully.
    
4. In cases where changes of character or demolition are unavoidable Dudley Council will seek to ensure that provision is made for an appropriate level of archaeological recording to take place prior to the alteration of the features concerned.

Policy DLPH8 Access and Movement in Halesowen

1. All development should retain and improve all useful, safe, and appropriate vehicular and pedestrian routes. Development should provide new routes that make access and movement easier, safer, more attractive and visually varied through and within built up areas.

2. Development should ensure that:
   1. Streets link up and layouts are designed to encourage safer walking, cycling, use by people with disabilities, and access to public transport.
   2. Direct, convenient, and safe access is provided for pedestrians, cyclists, and people with disabilities.
   3. In new areas of residential development, new streets should be designed to prioritise pedestrians, cyclists, and people with disabilities.
   4. All development and townscape and landscape enhancements should seek to incorporate measures for the ease of access of everybody. This will ensure unhindered movement for everyone to and within Halesowen Town Centre and also along the River Stour corridor pathways. It will enable people with disabilities, the elderly and the infirm to have ease of access to, and avail themselves of, the facilities provided within the Town Centre. Proposals should be in accordance with Dudley Council's Access for All Supplementary Planning Document and are required to incorporate an Access Statement that shows how the principles of inclusive design have been integrated.
   5. In some instances, a proposal may have substantial benefits to the wider local community but may not be able to achieve full accessibility due to heritage assets status and therefore a considered pragmatic approach may be adopted.
   6. A riverside walk should be delivered along the River Stour from Great Cornbow to Rumbow. The implementation of this route may be in phases as and when redevelopment opportunities occur.
       
3. Additionally, carriageway and river crossing points will be improved in the locations listed below that will help to improve pedestrian access and movement. Dudley Council will require that proposed development schemes contribute towards the delivery of these improvements where appropriate:
   1. Birmingham Street north of Great Cornbow/Bull Ring.
   2. Rumbow between Church Lane and Siviter Street.
   3. Linkage between Birmingham Street and Cobham Road/Centre Lane across the River Stour.
   4. Queensway/Summer Hill crossing point and ramped access and Laurel Lane/Pool Road connections to be improved in conjunction with the redevelopment of Pool Road Car Park opportunity site.
   5. Queensway/Grange Road junction to improve access to the southern stretch of the River Stour.