It is great to see spring in full flow…

Exciting times in this glorious sunshine, a feeling evidently shared by our resident bees that normally live their very private hive life on the Tobacco Factory rooftop but have been swarming in their thousands outside the office door for a couple of days recently...

Great news this month: With unanimous agreement North Somerset Council’s planning committee agreed to grant outline planning permission for Taylor Wimpey’s Grove Farm site at Backwell.

Development will deliver 515 new homes, land for new primary school provision, a community hub and an extensive range of new green infrastructure at Backwell, between Bristol and Weston-super-Mare...

"Cities are good for us, or at least they can and should be." … The team attended The Good City talk at the Arnolfini in Bristol organised by Design West last week to find out about the challenges around designing fair, sustainable and healthy urban centres for everyone.

Well, one thing that became quite clear was what a complex business city-making is, not least from a (public) investment perspective...

2025 is now in full swing and here at pad we are already working on a number of new projects across the South West with some of our long-standing clients.

Other challenging and much-needed developments that have been in the planning system pipeline for some time include revised proposals that were recently submitted to South Gloucestershire Council by Redcliffe Homes for full planning permission to deliver 47 new homes at Cromhall...

Welcome to 2025! We hope that you had a great Christmas break and we look forward to working with many of you this year.

Following a successful 2024, we look forward to more exciting projects and planning permissions in what is set to be an interesting year, with a Government target of 1.5 million new homes in the next five years and under the revised National Planning Policy Framework...

As we look forward to Christmas, we are pleased that in our last newsletter of the year we can report that reserved matters approval was granted this month to Stonewood Homes for 49 new dwellings in Sandford, North Somerset. 

The Meadow Gate site will also deliver additional land for education alongside the village primary school, and we look forward to including photos of the development on the ground in our revisited section in 2025...

We are delighted that Reserved Matters are now approved for another parcel of the East of Harry Stoke New Neighbourhood in South Gloucestershire.

Phase 2.2C is set to see Taylor Wimpey deliver an additional 112 new homes alongside an access from the Stoke Gifford Bypass, a key gateway to the development...

As we move into autumn, we are pleased to have seen a number of planning applications and Reserved Matters submissions made in recent weeks.
 
These include at Station Road, Castle Cary, where the Redcliffe Homes proposals finally received a resolution to grant full planning permission...

First of all, we are pleased to be assisting Hallam Land with proposals for residential development to the north of Cotford St Luke village, within the authority of Somerset Council.

These were subject to an online public consultation in recent weeks, and could see the delivery of 75 to 85 new homes, together with Green Infrastructure...

Earlier this month the pad team spent an interesting day away from the office, first visiting Shepton Mallet Prison for an immersive 'escape the cell' experience (we did...!) as well as a tour of the prison that closed in 2013.

After lunch, we enjoyed looking around Acorn Property Group's The Old Printworks in Frome to see how the site is progressing...

An application for full planning permission has been submitted this month for a new high-quality home within the City of Bath Conservation Area.

The proposals will see the existing 1950s house, which is of low architectural merit with considerable subsidence, replaced with an exemplar 4-bedroom sustainable home...

The two homes in the Coombe Dingle area of Bristol, which we designed for private clients several years ago, are now on sale with Rupert Oliver Property Agents.

The bespoke homes (of 4000 and 4500 sq ft) replaced the outdated home that previously occupied the secluded site...

Revised Reserved Matters proposals for 238 new homes, together with a variety of attractive and connected open space, had been submitted to Swindon Borough Council on behalf of David Wilson Homes.

We are delighted that approval has now been received, and will see a high quality addition to this pretty market town...

March saw several planning applications and reserved matters submissions.

These included at Land East of Lynx Crescent, Weston-super-Mare, where South West Strategic Developments with Grass Roots Planning has applied for outline planning permission to deliver 48 new homes...

With 2024 now well underway, we are back into a busy schedule including applications, design reviews, and land promotion work.

We have also undertaken modelling for several of our smaller architectural projects, including the proposal above for a large one-off new home designed as a contemporary homestead...

We are delighted to report a second Reserved Matters approval in Bristol for Goram Homes and Countryside Partnerships in as many months.
 
Phase One of the former school site in Hengrove, to the south of the city centre, is set to deliver 130 new homes which includes two and three storey houses and four storey apartments...

Happy New Year and welcome to our first newsletter of 2024. We hope that you had a great break and we look forward to catching up with you over the coming weeks and months.

We were delighted with a flurry of planning approvals just before Christmas. These included from Bristol City Council to Goram Homes and Countryside Partnerships...

Our office will be closed on Friday lunchtime (the 22nd) and reopen on Tuesday 2nd January.

This year we are once again donating to @sheltercharity and thanks to Jacob for designing our card this Christmas.

Thank you to all our clients for the continued support and here's to a prosperous and optimistic 2024!  

pad is happy to have assisted Bristol-based Woodstock Homes with the submission of an application for outline planning permission at Banwell village in North Somerset. The site can deliver up to 95 new homes, including a policy compliant level of affordable housing, substantial areas of open space including a community orchard...

A visualisation of the (now approved) proposals to extend a family home on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Exciting News Alert! pad Design is now an employee-owned business, recognising that our success has been and always will be built upon the hard work and commitment of our diverse team...

We were pleased to attend the topping out ceremony at Acorn Property Group's The Old Printworks site in Frome this month. It is great to see this development of 159 new homes nearing completion. Pad's role included both the Reserved Matters and working drawing stages on this brownfield site. Click here to read Acorn's Case Study of the site...

This month an application has been made for outline planning permission for redevelopment of the GPI site at Fishponds, Bristol. One of three adjoining sites, the proposals (formed of controlling parameters plans with supporting illustrative material, including the massing study left) will see up to 255 new homes provided set around a central open space.

Reserved Matters have now been submitted to Bristol City Council for residential redevelopment at Dovercourt Road (140 homes) and Phase 1 of New Fosseway Road (130 new homes). As reported last month, we are working on both sites alongside Countryside Partnerships and Goram Homes. Streetscenes from the New Fosseway site are shown left...

We hope that you are well and enjoying the summer! This month we are pleased to welcome James Essery to the practice, who joins us as an Urban Designer. This short newsletter celebrates ongoing projects with Goram Homes, and another visit to Arborfield Green in our revisited section, as well as the striking Lane End Farm (left)...

With the recent sunny weather and hot air balloons being a common sight in the sky over Bristol, this image - taken from our recent entry to the city's housing competition - seems particularly apt. A joint entry with Seed Landscape, the entry saw Mark, Hannah and Paulina put in a considerable effort out of office hours...

As usual, our newsletter provides a brief overview of several recent projects here at pad. These include two recent reserved matters approvals for residential developments in North Somerset and the granting of outline planning approval for a custom build site in the West Midlands...

We were delighted in recent weeks when Reserved Matters approval was granted for Bellway's proposals at Creedy Bridge, Crediton. This will see the delivery of 257 new homes, with Public Open Space, land for a future primary school, sports pitches, up to five gypsy and traveller pitches, and access works...

We were delighted to see full planning permission granted this month for development of four very high quality new homes at Ladye Bay, Clevedon. Designed on behalf of Hawkfield Homes to overlook the North Somerset coast...

Welcome to our second newsletter of the year. We have been pleased to see a couple of projects which we have been involved with receiving planning permission recently: Moonhill Copse (left) for EG Carter and Sovereign; and Badminton Road for Redcliffe Homes.

We hope that you had a great festive season and we wish you all the best for the coming year. We are looking forward to an exciting few months, which we expect to include several new planning applications which we were busy helping to prepare just before the break.

In this final newsletter of 2022, we are pleased to report approval on two sites in North Somerset as well as another recent submission in Wiltshire...

We were delighted to see our Treetops project featured in the Grand Designs magazine this month. This striking home lies within the Green Belt and replaced the previous outdated dwelling on the site. The article can be read on our website by clicking here.

Here at pad, our latest monthly newsletter provides a quick update on several of our projects and a recent photo from one of our historic sites. September saw the granting of full planning permission for re-development of land at Village Road, Cheltenham...

It has been a busy summer here at pad, one which has included the submission of a planning application by Hawkfield Homes for four very high quality dwellings overlooking Ladye Bay at Clevedon, on the Somerset coast...

Images which could be from another world have been seen in the pad office this month. We enjoyed having three young would-be designers with us for their work experience week. We asked Bethan, Pablo and Mo to design their dream home...

This month has seen applications for improvements to two family homes in North Somerset. The first of these, known as Field House, is currently a relatively unremarkable bungalow; the proposals as shown above would see it become a striking modernised dwelling...

Recent weeks having seen a number of interesting projects starting up, as well as planning applications and reserved matters approvals. We have had the chance to return to several of our previous projects (before the bunting went up)...

Along with progressing a range of projects, from bespoke one-off dream homes to large masterplans, we are enjoying getting back out to see progress on a number of sites for the first time in a while...

It has been another busy month at Pad, one which has seen several Reserved Matters submissions as well as new and continuing discussions surrounding projects which are currently in for planning.

With the wider issues going on in the world, these projects are providing a welcome distraction. We wish all the best to those caught up in the troubles in the Ukraine, and hope that you are all well too.

2022 has started where 2021 left off, as the world continues to recover from the pandemic. The first month of the year has been a particularly busy one for pad, and has seen the submission of several planning applications...

We hope that you all had a great Christmas and New Year. Pad returned to the office this morning, and it looks like a busy year ahead! We saw a number of applications submitted just before the break...

Take a look at some of our previous newsletters below...