Decarbonisation Scheme, Linacre College

Background

Linacre is a graduate College of the University of Oxford. It is wholly interdisciplinary and international in its student body, academically rigorous, and environmentally aware in its ethos.

Linacre College secured Salix grant funding to undertake a decarbonisation programme of the College’s buildings to improve the College’s carbon efficiency.

Edgars has a longstanding relationship with Linacre College and joined the project team to provide planning and heritage advice to achieve planning permission for the erection of a single-storey substation/switch building, installation of air source heat pumps and ancillary works, as well as alterations to car parking, bin, cycle storage and landscaping.

The challenge

There were a number of challenges that required careful consideration during the planning process. Firstly, there were timeframe constraints associated with the grant funding. Planning permission needed to be secured and all works completed within a year, by March 2024.

In terms of the site itself, Linacre College is located within the Central (University and City) Conservation Area and University Parks and is adjacent to the University Parks, which is a Grade II Registered Park and Garden. Whilst the buildings at Linacre College are not listed, they are considered non-designated heritage assets and the impact of the proposals at the front of the site would have an impact on these heritage assets.

For that reason, heritage was one of the key considerations that needed to be assessed in-depth in accordance with national and local planning policies to ensure the proposed development would minimise impact on the significance of these heritage assets and that public benefits of the proposal were clearly articulated.

Other constraints included trees at the front of the College that would be impacted by the proposed development and potential noise impact upon the public realm, in particular, the adjacent Mesopotamia Walk/cycle path and University Parks which are adjacent to the north of the College.

The solution

Given the tight timeframe, we needed to ensure a clear strategy for the timely and risk-free submission of a planning application, also ensuring no need for further reporting by the imposition of planning conditions. We proposed and managed a series of actions to speed up the process and reduce delays.

To minimise the risks associated with the proposed development, we worked closely with the project team to prepare and submit a comprehensive pre-application advice request to Oxford City Council in April 2023. Risks were clearly outlined at the start of the process with suitable mitigation for each step and the risk register was updated regularly to maintain the collaboration with the team and momentum for the project.

Following this, we organised a pre-application meeting on-site with the case officer and the heritage and conservation officer with a summary presentation. The scheme was discussed in detail and the officers supported the principle of the decarbonisation scheme and outlined further information that should be submitted with the application. This was an important step, and this initial discussion would minimise potential future delays where the proposal may need to go through rounds of amends.

Understanding the College’s needs, we knew that collaboration would be a key factor in our strategy to achieve the client’s objectives. We engaged with the case officer to ensure we received comments from the public consultation in a timely manner and to discuss the conditions attached to the decision notice.

During this time, the heritage and conservation officer raised concerns with the proposed design solution for the substation and bin stores, and through discussions with the case officer, we negotiated that the design of the substation and bins stores could be conditioned so that the design solution would be approved prior to the erection of those two elements. This avoided delays for the client and ensured that the decision notice was delivered by the expected date.

The result

The planning application for the decarbonisation scheme was approved in October 2023, and works have commenced on-site with the aim of full completion by March 2024.

Client testimonial 

“We are very grateful to Edgars for their contribution to this project. Their multidisciplined team were able to unpick the variety of Planning complications and agree with us, our design team and the Local Authority equitable solutions to all the requirements. Their regular engagement with us led to a good understanding of the requirements and enabled us to make informed decisions.”

– Simon Barker, Director for Estates, Linacre College