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RIVER VIEW RETIREMENT DEVELOPMENT
» » THE RIVER VIEW RETIREMENT
apartment development is a £6.25 million
development of 41 one and two bedroom
retirement apartments for the Housing
Plus Group. It has been built at the heart
of Penkridge Village on a brownfield site
in meadows running down to the banks
of the river Penk, a short walk away from
the village centre.
An SBD trained Designing Out Crime
Officer worked with the architects, Sutton
& Wilkinson, the developers, Cruden
Construction, and the Housing Plus
Group from the planning stages through
to construction to incorporate SBD crime
prevention techniques and security into
the development.
These measures included the built
environment, such as creating natural
surveillance from the properties, through
to the doors, windows and locks which
meet Police Preferred Specification
Standards. These measures combine to
make the properties more robust and
less attractive to opportunist criminals.
There are three levels of SBD award:
Gold, Silver and Bronze. The Gold
Award is the highest level and it is
awarded where the physical security
specification of the home is enhanced
by the security provided in the external
environment.
The development was judged the winner
in the Best Inclusive Building category at
the West Midlands Local Authority Building
Control Excellence Awards 2018, where it
was recognised for the quality of its design,
construction and sustainable energy
technologies by the judges.
Gordon Scott, Designing Out Crime
Officer for Staffordshire Police, said:
“This project was about delivering
high quality homes for elderly people
in a village environment where such
provision is limited. All aspects of the
site were covering in detail, including
the local crime risk and close liaison was
maintained with the architects and all
changes to the design discussed and
altered where appropriate.”
LISTER HOUSE HEALTH CENTRE
» » LISTER HOUSE HEALTH CENTRE,
Harlow, which includes a GP practice,
dentist’s and pharmacy within a single
building, was officially opened by
Harlow MP Robert Halfon on Friday, 19
October.
The ceremony marked the climax of
six years of partnership working between
SBD and other partner organisations to
design crime prevention techniques into
the physical security of the building and
its layout and landscaping to make it a
safe place for patients and visitors as
well as health service practitioners.
Security measures that led to the
building receiving SBD’s Gold Award
include an integrated risk management
and intruder alarm system for the whole
building linked to an alarm receiving
centre that is monitored 24/7 and
security roller shutters on the front door
to the communal entrance. These are
measures that have been replicated
with alarms and shutters protecting each
of the three separate health facilities –
each with its own staff access control
systems.
All doors and windows and the curtain
walling on the external façade are PAS
24 SBD compliant.
The immediate surrounding area has
been landscaped to maximise
natural surveillance with
subtle planting and
strategic use of CCTV,
lighting and bollards to
protect the 130-space
car park; whilst
respecting the planning
authority’s requirements
for interconnectivity with
adjoining areas and cycle
paths throughout the town. Special
measures were taken to protect the
health centre’s nitrogen gas canisters
and waste bin storage.
Even the car park has been signed off
by SBD for achieving Park Mark status,
which recognises appropriate levels
of surveillance, lighting, signage and
cleanliness have all been achieved. The
building has also achieved BREEAM
‘excellent’ status for sustainability.
Heather Gurden, Strategic Designing
Out Crime Manager, with Essex
Police, said all security measures
were considered carefully to be
commensurate with the risk to the
building and to complement the overall
architectural vision.
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“The biggest thing for me has
been working with partners who
recognise the importance of building
in security and then going further
than you have done before. Whilst
effective security is part and parcel of
the development, it has been achieved
with a genuine understanding of how
patients, visitors and staff need to use
the building and in a way that’s barely
noticeable to members of the public.”
With its groundworks starting in
September 2017 and its doors opening
to the public for the first time on Friday,
5 October, 2018, the Lister House
development is the biggest single health
centre practice in West Essex with
20,000 plus patients – about a quarter
of the town’s population – registered
for medical services at the ten-doctor
practice, which is also a training centre.