March 11 2005

CABE has expressed serious doubts over the quality of the Howarth Litchfield Partnership’s masterplan for Sunderland’s £300million Riverside Park development.
The plans for the redevelopment of one of Sunderland’s industrial blackspots, which include 1,500 new homes, offices, shops, a school and a sports ground, were submitted to Sunderland City Council last autumn. The proposals, by developer O&H Group, were backed by Sunderland Arc, the area regeneration company.

CABE’s doubts about the scheme were based on the layout and location of the local centre. Its report said: “We are pleased to see that this illustrative masterplan has considered a layout that may be more appropriate to this site context than a standard grid layout, and we support the concept of buildings set in landscape. However, we do not think that this approach has been successfully resolved across the whole site to the extent that it constitutes a convincing basis for a masterplan.”

The report went on to say: “The illustrative masterplan does not seem to be derived from an understanding of how communities work. As currently proposed, rather than forming an accessible focal point for the community, the uses that would constitute the local centre are split into two halves on either side of the new bridge and between the two final phases of development.”

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