Focus on streets

Upton has sought to be an exemplar larger scale scheme that directly challenges the conventional suburban layout by creating a network of connected streets. This section looks at how the streets have been designed and how well they function. Partly because Upton itself is incomplete and lacking its full compliment of residents this evaluation is harder to undertake. Also it has faced problems with connecting into the wider street network. Still it has some useful lessons for new urban extension schemes that will be designed in the future.

A place with character

The streets in Upton do look different – the sustainable urban drainage system is an integrated part of the street design on the widest streets and creates an attractive landscape, albeit only with temporary planting currently. The scale of the buildings that line them, the continuous building line along the streets, and the design detail in the streets themselves gives them potentially a real urban feel. As has been said previously all that is missing, at this early stage, is the people to help animate them.

Attention to detail

Upton’s hierarchy of streets has been well conceived and works well at the scale of the development, and was implemented with generally high quality materials and installation. This helps give a positive impression to residents and visitors that this is a quality place with a strong design ethos.

Good inclusive design attributes (but limited consultation)

Although inclusive design considerations have only recently come to prominence in residential street design, Upton does display a range of features that aid accessibility and movement for all users. Actual consultation with local access groups was limited but the scheme is commendable for access for many people to play and recreational facilities and to wider countryside walks. The children’s playground, for example, is accessible for people in wheelchairs using a wooden bridge from the street and the Nene Valley Way, which is integrated into the site design, has ramped or level access. Bridges with level access join streets together although many of these bridges are not well lit and lack tonal contrast that could help people with visual impairments.

Connections frustrated by a fear of through traffic

The original plan for Upton aspired to establish a network of streets that would connect into the existing developments that abut the Upton site. Unfortunately residents within these conventionally designed cul-de-sac developments have objected to through traffic connections with the Upton scheme, although pedestrian and cycle links have been established.

Public transport accessibility is compromised currently because although low floor buses serve the development the bus stop is over a five minute walk away from housing areas. This has important ramifications for people with mobility and visual impairments, including residents within a sheltered housing block within the scheme, who may be unable to make such a journey, particularly as there is a general lack of tactile paving at key pedestrian crossing points.

The combined effect of the lack of a full compliment of residents and the movement compromises above is that Upton’s streets do seem to lack activity and there are obviously risks to future commercial uses and community development if activity does not manifest itself in the future from within the development and nearby communities. Currently it appears to be more of a car based dormitory settlement than was originally intended with residents having to drive out of the development to meet day to day needs. There is anecdotal evidence that parking has proved insufficient in this first phase of development which shows that residents are choosing the car.

Parking in courts is challenged by behavioural traits

Parking is one of the key areas to resolve in any residential scheme. Residents’ parking in phase 1 of Upton is mainly in landscaped parking courts accessed through archways with gates in the perimeter building blocks. The status of these courts to an observer walking past varies. Some are closed and locked and others are left open. As a result both residents and visitors are given confusing signals – are they areas to walk through or are they purely private? There appears to be evidence that some residents are parking on the street instead. This is leading to pressure on street parking spaces which were intended primarily for visitors and also some evidence of parking on pavements. This has important ramifications for disabled visitors who may need to park near to their destination. Residents expect that enforcement action will be needed to prevent pavement parking and, perhaps, residents parking in the spaces intended for visitors.