The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence highlight exceptional examples of planning and celebrate the contribution that planners and planning make to society.
The division has been shortlisted as a finalist for the Excellence in Planning to Create Economically Successful Places, Excellence in Planning for the Natural Environment and Excellence in Planning to Deliver Housing.
Bidwells will find out if they are winners at the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence ceremony, which will be held at Milton Court at The Barbican, London on 5 May 2016.
The entry for Excellence in Planning to Create Economically Successful Places is for the UEA Enterprise Centre which is the UK's Greenest Commercial Building, and the first Passivhaus accredited university building in Europe setting the standard for low carbon sustainable development. It was officially opened in October 2015.
Bidwells was appointed by the University of East Anglia to act as planning consultants for the Enterprise Centre, built on land it had acquired on the edge of Earlham Park, Norwich. The planning process posed a number of challenges including the fact that the land lay within a conservation area, in the curtilage of a listed building and adjacent to historic parkland.
The entry for Chelmsford City Park West (Phases 1 and 2) has been selected as a finalist for the second year in the category for Excellence in Planning to Deliver Housing. The mixed-use redevelopment by Genesis, of the former Anglia Ruskin University Central Campus included the restoration of a Grade II listed building and the provision of 650 residential units, over 5,000 square metres of flexible retail/business uses and public squares to frame and complement the retained historic setting.
Bidwells was appointed as planners and worked with architects Pollard Thomas Edwards on the project.
And the third scheme to be named as a finalist is the Kingsbrook project in Aylesbury for the Excellence in Planning for the Natural Environment category. Bidwells secured outline planning permission for the project for Barratt Developments plc and Ashfield Land in December 2013, to provide 2450 homes, two primary schools, a site for a secondary school, community and retail facilities, an employment park and strategic road infrastructure.
Now under construction by Barratt, the scheme embodies an approved Ecological Management Plan which addresses wildlife habitat creation with sustainable drainage solutions as part of a rich landscape setting.
Mike Derbyshire Head of Planning said: "We are all very proud that the excellent work of the Bidwells' Planning Team has been recognised through being shortlisted as finalists for these awards.
"The diversity of the schemes demonstrates the breadth of planning specialisms carried out by the planning team every day and how each project has a positive impact on all areas of life and helps to build lasting communities."
The RTPI represents 23,000 planning professionals worldwide and promotes spatial planning, shapes policy and raises professional standards. The Awards for Planning Excellence have been run by the RTPI for over 30 years to recognise planning excellence.
Finalists have been recognised for their national contribution to planning and demonstrate how significant schemes can be delivered speedily through the planning and other consents systems.
Phil Williams, President of the Royal Town Planning Institute said: “The finalists highlight outstanding examples of planning that have made a positive impact on the local community and environment. The judges will find it difficult separating the finalists and choosing winners given the high calibre of entries this year.”
For more information visit the RTPI website.
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