- Client
- Hastings Borough Council
- Sector
- Planning & Development
- Location
- St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, East Sussex
- How we helped
- Masterplanning and urban design
Johnny Clayton joined Carter Jonas in July 2018 to head up the masterplanning and urban design practice across the UK. Johnny is a Masterplanner and Urban Designer, with a broad skills base and over 16 years of project experience encompassing conceptual design, masterplanning, urban design, detailed design and project implementation. His particular specialism and passion is for strategic land projects including new settlements, but also urban mixed-use regeneration schemes. Johnny is also a Chartered Landscape Architect since 2008.
Carter Jonas’ development team were initially asked to investigate the potential for marketing a joint venture between Hastings Borough Council (as landowners) and a developer, through the OJEU process. At interview, our development professionals expressed reservations about this being the best way forward due to the cost of the OJEU process, the uncertainty of site constraints, and the weak local market.
Following this, our masterplanning team were appointed to prepare the masterplan for the site, which has lain empty for over 30 years. Our approach was to work with the constraints rather than against them, to minimise abnormal costs through clever design.
Two residential schemes for up to 224 dwellings were developed based on four key design elements:
- A central square over the undevelopable wastewater reservoir and adjacent services
- A retained seafront walkway/cycleway enclosed by potential artists’ colony and display space
- Informal timber townhouses in the west
A more formal residential development in the east.