We recently commissioned Design Yorkshire's design review service to help produce design and planning principles to assist the Council ahead of the procurement process to deliver a hotel on the site of the old Westgate railway station in Wakefield.

The panel suggested a ‘micro-masterplan’ approach for the area, aimed at improving design quality to take into account the surrounding heritage assets. This brought a new perspective in that it enabled a comprehensive approach to the strategic site in a Conservation area, ensuring site opportunities and constraints are fully considered.

The panel came up with key design ideas and principles to optimise and reactivate the setting and spaces around the heritage assets to allow them to ‘breathe’ within the sensitive setting of the area. They applied a strategic approach to creating and enhancing pedestrian movements and connections in and around the site, providing a cohesive context for the site overall.

They produced some very useful graphics too, setting out analysis of the site and the key design principles.

Design Yorkshire’s review of the site was a very useful tool in thinking through the design and planning elements of the development prior to the procurement process for project delivery.

Elisa Atkinson, Regeneration Team

Wakefield Metropolitan District Council

We recently commissioned Integreat Plus to assemble an independent design review panel to review a proposal for a major strategic housing development.

I was particularly impressed by the range of relevant expertise that they were able to assemble.

Not only did the panel focus on issues that we had identified for consideration, but used their expertise and extensive experience to identify other matters which were not immediately obvious.

The discussion and written report was refreshingly frank and proactively suggested solutions to improve the design quality of the scheme in its widest sense.

It is invaluable having an expert, independent design review as a tool to seek improvements to the design of the scheme.

All of the staff involved found it a positive and enlightening experience. I would not hesitate to use their Design Review Panel in the future.

Nick Read, Area Planning Manager

Scarborough Borough Council

From my point of view the value of the Integreat Plus design review process is that it allows everyone directly involved with the scheme to take a step back and listen to an independent and unbiased assessment of the scheme from a very broad, well informed and knowledgeable perspective.

For a scheme that is still embryonic the usefulness of this is that it should open minds up to fuller understanding of the site opportunities and constraints and allow the design to evolve from a better informed understanding of the range of design responses possible.

For a scheme that is a bit further down the line the design review acts as a good inertia check and should allow stakeholders to understand the strengthen and weaknesses of the current direction of travel with the scheme design and consider alternative design responses.

This applies to the recent panel on the Nestle site in Castleford and in particular the design review provoked a reconsideration of the approach to the site frontage, the relationship of the site with the wider environment including the river and the different approaches which could be taken to providing public open space on the site.

Michael Eaglestone, Major Projects

Wakefield Metropolitan District Council

Persimmon West Yorkshire has utilised Design Yorkshire's design review service to support the design development on some of our recent strategic and sensitive sites. We have found the review panel and process to be positive and constructive, aimed at improving design quality. For our Silsden scheme, which received planning consent in 2023, we undertook 3 design reviews with Design Yorkshire as part of an iterative design process. This allowed us to focus on key strategic issues with the initial review, and then focus on design detail with the subsequent sessions. The guidance and feedback supported us in creating a high-quality and well-designed scheme that responds to local context. We would use Design Yorkshire again on other important sites in the future

Ben Bowman, Persimmon

We engaged early in the design process with Design Yorkshire on our outline planning application. We found it to be a very helpful, constructive, and worthwhile exercise that enabled a proper open dialogue between all parties on the design evolution of the scheme. Where able, we have incorporated most of the positive suggestions received in the final development proposal. We would recommend getting Design Yorkshire involved at the earliest stage possible, to ensure that your scheme is genuinely landscape and design-led.

Katherine Putnam, Gladman

Design Review has proved to be an excellent sounding board at critical stages within the development of several of the city’s major schemes. In our experience Design Review is an entirely constructive process bringing fresh perspectives, impetus and consensus around design approaches. At its heart is the idea of collaboration which is an essential quality of any successful design process.

Rob Beardsworth, Urban Design

Hull City Council

North East Lincolnshire have recently used the Design Review Panel for a few major projects including a cinema complex in Grimsby and a multi-storey mixed use regeneration project in the heart of Cleethorpes. These schemes in particular raise some important design considerations due to their sensitive locations. By using the Design Review Panel it allowed us to test design quality and rationale and provide constructive challenge to the applicants. This allowed us to be robust in our decision making and provide confidence in our approach with planning committee.

For Cleethorpes in particular, having a thorough design assessment and report enabled us to confidently show members that the design had been given full regard and consideration by Officers, consultees and an independent expert panel. As a result, Design Review is recognised as a valuable tool in the planning process and we are looking forward to engaging with the panel on future projects

Cheryl Jarvis, Principle Town Planner

North East Lincolnshire Council

We found the independent review process to be very be beneficial. The wide background and experience of the panel meant that our concept was thoroughly evaluated in all aspects, questioning our assumptions and encouraging greater exploration. This critique enabled us to re-evaluate and refine our proposals to ensure that what is core to the design was clearly expressed. As designers, we felt that the panel gave us the conviction in our design and approach together with confidence to seek and squeeze out all of the potential in the scheme with the aim of creating something exceptional.

Should we be fortunate to be commissioned with another dwelling of this type, we would certainly bring this to review with you and would also recommend this invaluable independent assessment to other design professionals.

Nic Dormer

Dormer & Co Chartered Architects

The Design Review Panel were appointed by HBC to provide an independent critique of early design work relating to the delivery of two strategic sites within the district. The panel, appointed by Integreat, was made up of highly experienced professionals, who offered insight and expertise to helpfully inform the next steps of design work required.

Inviting independent design expertise to critique site context work and early proposals has proved to be a valuable way of ensuring that good practice design processes are employed and that site opportunities and constraints are fully considered. We were impressed with the organised and professional way that they carried out the review.

Janet Entwistle, Principal Policy and Delivery Officer

Harrogate Borough Council