Swindon's Front Garden identified for government planing guidelines pilot. 8 September set for community consultations in Wroughton

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has announced that the Swindon Southern Development Area (SDA) - known locally as 'the Front Garden' - has been included in the Government's Urban Design Coding Pilot Programme.

With plans to build some 4,500 new homes, the Swindon Southern Development Area is one of the largest projects within the programme.

A design code is a set of specific rules or requirements to guide the physical development of an area, aiming to provide clarity about what constitutes acceptable design quality for developers and local communities and assists in accelerating the delivery of good quality new development.

The SDA will help test whether coding at a national level can accelerate the delivery of better quality environments with the sort of well built, well designed homes that the Government and local communities are keen to see. Developing the code will be a collaborative process, and people In Swindon will have the chance to work closely with other stakeholders through a consultation programme within the community.

The design codes will build on the aspiration of the already agreed masterplan and provide a vision, a rationale and a set of requirements (the codes themselves). These can be urban design principles aimed at delivering better quality places and include requirements for streets, blocks, massing and so on, or can be focused more on architectural or building performance.

Nick Sedgwick, strategic projects director for Taylor Woodrow said: "Throughout the Southern Development Area project we have held extensive public consultation events to ensure that local people have had an opportunity to influence the way this site has evolved.

"The next stage is to look at the detailed design for the area so that we can ensure the best, most sustainable development possible."

As part of its design code consultation the SDA team will be holding a series of focus groups at a community involvement day on 8 September, 10am to 8pm, at the Ellendune Community Hall in Wroughton and a stakeholder workshop. John Simpson and Partners, the architects responsible for the design codes, will be in attendance at the consultation events to discuss local people's ideas and aspirations, and how they can be reflected in the design codes.