House of Somerset

The House of Somerset will be located just off Junction 26 of the M5. It will be a regional destination which will showcase the best of Somerset’s food, drink and farm supply producers.

The proposed development will include a Visitor Centre, Food Court, Produce Hall and Farmers Market. Adjacent to the House of Somerset will be a pair of Artisan Buildings that contain workshops related to the craft producers on display. Sustainable principles underpin the design of the scheme which will include green roofs, electric vehicle charging points and a bicycle hire facility.

We were appointed to undertake the Flood Risk Assessment with surface water and foul drainage strategies and a Transport Assessment with a Framework Travel Plan to support the detailed planning application. 

It was a challenging site as being shown in the high-risk flood zone 3, despite the landowners maintaining that the site had never flooded. We met with the Environment Agency and appointed specialist consultants to model the flood risk to the site in a number of scenarios. The output of this modelling showed that the site was not in the high-risk flood zone and with some minor flood mitigation measures, the site will be protected in up to the 1 in 1,000 year flood event.

Similarly, there were significant transport issues to resolve, not least the access onto the A38 and the nearby Chelston roundabout which operates close to peak capacity in the peak AM hour. We undertook a series of analyses and sensitivity tests to assess the impact of the proposed development on the existing network. We concluded that the site is in an accessible and sustainable location and that a safe and suitable access arrangement can be provided as required by the NPPF. It was also demonstrated that the proposed development would not result in a severe impact on the local or strategic highway network following mitigation. 

A planning application will be sumbitted shortly.

Images reproduced courtesy of House of Somerset and Reed Holland architects