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Policy DQ2: Security in the Built Environment
   

1.  New development should be designed so as to provide good levels of personal and property security, as follows:

a)  All public highways, footpaths and cycle routes, and car parking areas should be highly visible (including at night) and have good levels of natural surveillance from nearby properties;

b)  The design of buildings and of landscaping areas should avoid creating potential hiding places whilst providing defensible space by giving definition between the public and private realm;

c)  Features such as gates and fencing should be included where necessary to prevent inappropriate access;

d)  The buildings themselves should be securely designed, with main entrance doors and windows enjoying good levels of natural surveillance;

e)  Long lengths of blank or uniform fencing or walls should be avoided where these would create dead frontages; and

f)  Large developments should include a mixture of uses and/or types of dwellings to maximise surveillance through the day and night.

2.  Security features such as fencing, walls, CCTV cameras and lighting (both in new developments and where proposed to provide added security to existing developments) should be designed so as to avoid causing harm to:

a)  Visual amenity;

b)  The amenities of occupiers of nearby property; or

c)  Highway safety.

 

Explanation DQ2

11.19

The design of new developments has a crucial role to play in delivering and creating a sense of safety and security. The Secured by Design initiative (see footnote11), together with the Council’s Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy (see chapter 2 – “Key Issues and Influences”) seek to ensure that security issues are taken into account as an integral part of the design of new development.

11.20

Security in new development should not be achieved at the cost of making the development unattractive. This will mean ensuring that features such as security fencing, walls, lighting etc. are only used where they are justified by security considerations and are of high visual quality, particularly on highway frontages.

11.21

Over recent years, there has been considerable demand to construct palisade fencing around industrial and commercial properties and schools. This can create an unwelcoming visual appearance. For this reason, the Council normally requires that more attractive forms of fencing are used particularly on highway frontages in industrial areas or in residential areas. The Council will, within its proposed Supplementary Planning Document covering design issues, describe what types of security fencing are considered acceptable in which locations.

11.22

Lighting fixtures need to be attractively designed and located. They should be orientated and if necessary hooded to avoid causing glare or nuisance for occupiers of adjacent property or car drivers.  

11 Association of Chief Police Officers et al “The Secured by Design award scheme” 1999

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