Landscape, Access & Movement
The landscape design has been developed to provide a rich and stimulating, yet simple and functional landscape. It will provide a high quality and cherished setting to the hotel which draws on the surrounding context and the historic landscape. The proposals will look to increase biodiversity, improve access and circulation while allowing for onsite sustainable drainage solutions.
The new formal entrance reinstates the grandeur of the arrival sequence
Drifts of herbaceous perennials and grasses to be used within the parkland gardens
Improved Coast Path signage (© S.Hinakawa / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)
Existing mature landscape retained and enhanced
Evergreen hedges and local stone walls are a feature of the adjacent Conservation Area
Open hotel terraces from the 1930s that will be reintroduced in the proposals
“We continue to be supportive of the re-ordering of the hotel's external spaces and boundaries, which will match the quality and approach to the buildings themselves… The overall impression of the site, and the experience and sense of arrival to the hotel will be much improved.”
— Historic England Pre-application Advice October 2020
A detailed review of the access and movement issues and opportunities associated with the development proposals, has identified that the site is in an extremely sustainable location. It provides significant opportunities for hotel guests, staff and future residents to undertake local trips by foot or bike, with easy access to an array of public transport services within Torquay town centre.
The development proposals will result in a reduction in the level of traffic associated with the hotel due to the reduction in the number of rooms and reduction in the scale of conferencing facilities, which provides flexibility to rationalise and improve the existing parking provision while still maintaining policy complaint provision for existing and new uses. Overall the combined development proposals will result in a reduction in vehicle trips generated by the site. Together with revised servicing arrangements the proposal will create a significant enhancement to the guest arrival experience.
Residential parking provision will be limited to one space per dwelling with a minimum of 20% of spaces equipped with charging points. The apartments and surrounding landscape has been laid out to create attractive routes which encourage pedestrian access to local facilities. Secure, covered cycle parking for over 50 bikes also forms part of the residential proposals.
More widely the proposals will provide significant benefits to users of the south west coastal path with improved public realm and additional footway provision and will deliver an improved pedestrian route along Parkhill Road to the north of the hotel access, bridging a significant gap in the local walking network.
Hotel service access is reconfigured as part of the proposals to avoid reversing delivery vehicles at the hotel entrance. New access is gained via the Imperial Court site to the west over which the Hotel benefits from rights of access.
An enclosed service area is located below the landscaped podium garden, sized to allow vehicles to turn. This area links to the Hotel back-of-house below the adjacent residential car park, which is also concealed below the landscaped podium and accessed adjacent to the Hotel entrance.
The new podium landscape will provide pedestrian access to the resident’s apartments through a sweeping parkland setting; featuring formal lawns, ornamental trees, kinetic planting and pockets of usable space for relaxing and gathering.
The biodiverse living roof to Building B looks to incorporate Biodiversity Action Plan target species to provide important habitats for wildlife and strengthen the wider habitat matrix.
The Building A car park will be reached via a new vehicular access on to Parkhill Road. The access will be located at the eastern end of the car park as this provides the best opportunity for an appropriate visibility splay along Parkhill Road. The access is proposed to take the form of a footway crossover, and a small footway build out is proposed to enable the required visibility to be achieved, based upon recent speed surveys.
New evergreen hedges and pleached trees will line the historic boundary walls, reinforcing a key feature of the adjacent Conservation Area and creating an important foil to the new development.
A new publicly accessible path is proposed to the east of the main Hotel access junction, running east along the southern side of Parkhill Road. The path would form a continuation of the existing footway which ceases just to the east of the junction. Due to the limited highway space, the path would be provided behind the existing boundary wall extending approximately 40m to the east to a historic gateway to the Hotel site. At this point, pedestrians would pass through the gateway back onto Parkhill Road. This path, within the Hotel’s land, would reduce the length of Parkhill Road without footway provision to around 20m.
