A commentary on the Cranbrook Task Group final report

The County Council's task group for Cranbrook brought out a report last month:



Cranbrook Task Group: Final Report: Place Scrutiny Committee

Here is a commentary on that plan from Graham Cooper of the VGS Futures Forum:

This blog has been generally critical of the development process which has put together 'Devon's first new town since the Middle Ages':
Futures Forum: The Cranbrook project >>> where's the town centre >>> the infrastructure >>>the 'growth point'?
Futures Forum: Cranbrook: welcome to dismaland

However, the most recent piece considered how the Design Council is looking at the project:
Futures Forum: Designing Cranbrook: how to 'respond to lessons learnt from the completed housing'

A correspondent has provided this comment, following a recent visit to the town:

My first thoughts were how incredibly difficult it is to design and build a successful new town in which the residents are happy and healthy. Also its only about a quarter of the way through construction so its difficult to predict how successful or not it will be, - so the jury is out.

It is I believe in everyone's interest for the town to mature well and that the residents don't suffer from a poor reputational stigma. For sure there are plenty of problems and many shortcomings but at the moment I feel a need for constructive criticism. One striking feature however of the site are the contours and watercourses and I fear the run off  - unless there are safeguards - may present flooding issues downstream:

See attached masterplan:

cranbrook masterplan - Exeter and East Devon Growth Point
Exeter&East Devon Interactive 3D Masterplan
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