Milestone for Cranbrook Town Centre

Cranbrook now exceeds some 2500 completions with a wide range of supporting infrastructure already delivered including a station, schools, community centre, local shops, a country park and sports pitches.  This week a series of major agreements and permissions have been completed resulting in a comprehensive plan for the delivery of the town centre.

As a result of significant changes in the market since outline consent was granted the adaptation and evolution of the original vision for Cranbrook town centre was needed.  This was led by the Cranbrook Strategic Delivery Board made up of the Town Council, District Council and County Councillors.  DLA were pleased to be able to assist, working with all the partners involved as well as the Board, providing planning, design, consultation, communication and mapping skills.

The agreements signed this week included variations to the section 106 agreement and a memorandum of agreement to deliver the revised vision, which will result in the early transfer of land and money from our clients, the East Devon New Community partners (Hallam Land, Persimmon Homes and Taylor Wimpey) to Devon County Council to deliver a wide range of community facilities and library in a community hub as well as an extra care facility. Land will be transferred to the District Council to deliver Town Council offices, work facilities, a health and wellbeing centre plus commercial retail elements on part of the high street.  The District Council has also secured funding from the Exeter and East Devon Enterprise Zone to acquire additional land in the town centre to cater for the future needs of a growing population with Cranbrook planned to grow to a town of around 8,000 homes.

With the agreements in place, planning permission was granted this week for our clients, Henry Davidson Developments Limited and the consortium for the first major piece of the town centre jigsaw; one side of the High Street, the town square, a Supermarket and Nursery. Construction should start imminently and the supermarket, a Morrisons concept store for new towns and urban extensions, is due to be open by the Autumn 2023.

There was a great team effort by all involved to ensure that the much needed town centre facilities for the residents of Cranbrook will be delivered and construction can get underway.