Environmental Assessment, Design & Management - West Midlands : Moore Environment

New Commissions

Moore Environment has been commissioned to carry out some interesting new projects over the last few months including:-

LVIA for a wind turbine project in Pembrokeshire – Seren Energy
Masterplanning & Detail Design for housing proposed on car park of Prince of Wales public house, Rugeley - JM Homes and Space Studio
Masterplanning & Detail Landscape Design of holiday lodges proposed to form part of Abbey Hotel & Golf Course, Redditch - RSM Leisure
Masterplanning residential development and open space Homer Hill Cradley. Nicol Thomas architects, Midland Heart Development Ltd
Masterplanning & Detail Landscape Design for over 1.5ha of amenity landscape and play spaces, including Sustainable Drainage (SuDS), associated with a large residential development proposed at Saighton Camp, Chester - Bovis Homes
Detailed landscape design for Cafan Mill, a new hydro electric scheme in Carmarthenshire

Landscape Institute CPD Day 19th October 2011

Barry led one of the seminars at the LI CPD day on October 19th with the topic - Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) – a review of effective delivery. The session was fully booked and gave rise to lively debate and discussion.

Overall the day was considered a great success and may be rolled out to other venues next year.

Update on St Mary’s Churchyard, Moseley

The community consultation held over the summer was a great success with a good response to questionnaires and other consultation events, resulting in some valuable feedback to help develop the proposals for the improvements to the Churchyard. A draft Masterplan for the project has now been produced.

The Rise of BIM

The Building Information Modelling Working Party Strategy Paper was released by the Department for Business on the 20th June 2011 and outlines the Government’s strategy for capability in BIM to be a requirement for the procurement and delivery of all future public buildings by 2016 - see our blog for more...

New BS proposed for care of young trees - BS8545 Young Trees: From The Nursery Through To Independence In The Landscape: A Continuous Process

In 2008 the Government published Trees in Towns II – a follow up to the 1992 research on urban trees. Within the document was the statistic that, on average, 25% of young trees planted into the landscape fail.

This was perhaps the spark which led to Keith Sacre (Sales Director at Barcham Trees) proposing that a new British Standard should be developed to help protect young trees and emphasise that the transition from the nursery into the landscape is a continuous process - see our blog for more...

St Mary's Churchyard Moseley - Public Consultation

The public consultation for the churchyard improvements closed on 27th July. Thank you to all those who took the time to contribute.

We are now compiling all the views and ideas into a consultation report to help with the design of the development.

Bethany's Sunshine Fund - British Gas Great North Swim

Richard Waddell is doing the British Gas Great North Swim on 18th June 2011 in aid of the charity Bethany's Sunshine Fund. The swim is 1 mile across Lake Windemere - with 10,000 others in icy cold water.

As many of you may already know, Bethany Dawson was Richard's niece and was born in June 2007 with a condition called gastroschesis. Over her short life, she spent most of her days in Birmingham Children's Hospital, undergoing over 25 operations. Beth eventually lost her fight in September 2009 at just over 2 years old.

For more information about Beth and the charity set up in her memory, visit the page of Bethany's Sunshine Fund on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Bethanys-Sunshine-Fund/160247993995153

To make a donation online go to: http://www.justgiving.com/Richard-Waddell/?fb_ref=fundraising-page-top&fb_source=profile_oneline

Churchyard Improvement Scheme

We are delighted to have been appointed by the Parish of St Mary's, Moseley in Birmingham to assist with their HL funded churchyard improvement scheme - for the benefit of the local community and visitors to Moseley.

The scheme will include proposals to improve access, provide new gardens and improve existing ones, provide interpretive material on the history of the church and churchyard and provide a secure and attractive environment for the community to use. We should finish the masterplan stage in September and then be ready to apply for a grant for the implementation

Landscape Institute Midlands Branch

Sue Moore and Richard Waddell were elected as committee Secretary and Treasurer (respectively) at the AGM of the Landscape Institute Midlands Branch (LIMB) last week. Richard replaces Nigel Dobson-Smyth who has held the position for a number of years - the Branch has been without a Secretary for a while. Steve Fancourt was elected as Chairman replacing Jerry Birkbeck - another long serving member.

We look forward to an interesting year with the Branch with plenty of events for education, entertainment and a lot of much needed profile raising for the profession. For more about LIMB visit http://www.libranches.org/branches/midlands/index.shtml

J & F Partnership

We are very sorry to be losing Frances Carroll from Moore Environment at the end of March. She has decided to focus on her own consultancy J & F Partnership, specialising in design for inclusive landscapes and sustainable communities. Frances’ new company will provide workshops and seminars in design best practice to enhance the experience of physically disabled users. Workshops will include key issues for design, how to develop an empathetic approach and will include advice gained from her partner Joe and his 30 years ‘real life experience’ as a wheelchair user.

Frances can be contacted on email@rainbow1975.plus.com and 01789 763878. Whilst we will lose Frances from our Company she will remain a key member of our network and we hope to continue to work with her and her new practice.

WWCI Localism and Planning Event

Lucy and Penny attended the WWCI Localism and Planning event on 23rd March at Wolverhampton Science Park. It was a very good debate with strong arguements for (Steve Quartermain - Chief Planning Officer for Communities and Local Government) and against the Bill (Waheed Nazir - Director of Planning and Regeneration at Birmingham City Council and Louise Brooke-Smith - Director of Brooke Smith Planning (representing the private sector's view of the Localism Bill).

For the Coalition Governments detailed guide go to: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/doc/1801444.doc.

In summary the Decentralisation and Localism Bill is part of the Government's vision for greater democratic and local control for sustainable growth and their belief that the current planning system is centralised and too complex. For more information on the event go to our blog.

Find it in Birmingham's 'Growing Green' 2011

Penny and Richard manned our stand at Find it in Birmingham's 'Growing Green' exhibition on Wednesday 23rd February at the Warwickshire Cricket Ground in Edgbaston. The day proved very popular and informative with an opening by Councillor Tim Huxtable, Birmingham Cabinet Member for Transport and Regeneration and an inspiring introductory speech by local historian Professor Carl Chinn MBE.

Seminars continued throughout the day and the Moore Environment stand was visited by an array of delegates including major contractors, architects, developers, corporate strategists and financial advisors. For more information visit our blog.

Environmental Impact Assessment Events

An RTPI West Midlands Event in Association with Moore Environment - An Environmental Impact and Assessment Workshop - a guide to Effective EIA delivery with a welcome by Mark Walton RTPI WM Regional Chair.The workshop will provide a guide to effective EIA delivery, including a detailed review of all topics with short presentations by our specialists.

There are a few places left - for more information or to book contact Sue Griffiths-Jones, RTPI West Midlands Regional Coordinator westmidlands@rtpi.org.uk 0121 709 1599. Non Members welcome. For further information you can view our flyer.

Growing Green 2011

Moore Environment are exhibiting at Growing Green 2011 Wednesday 23 February 9.30am to 4pm Warwickshire Cricket Ground, Edgbaston Road, Birmingham B5 7QU. Some major players from the world of design and engineering have signed up for Growing Green 2011 including Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), alongside environmental consultants (like us) and engineering giants - Cundall who were recently voted Sustainable Consultant of the year at the 2010 Building Sustainability awards.

Urban design and environmental teams from Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, Birmingham City Council and Warwickshire County Council will also be taking part. For more go to our blog

Birmingham City Council – Framework for Landscape Consultancy

We are delighted to have been awarded a contract as part of Birmingham City Council’s Framework for Landscape Consultancy Services. The contract runs for 4 years.

Consultation on Stage 2 of Birmingham’s Big City Plan (the Masterplan for the City Centre, launched last September), finished just before Christmas.

Working in partnership with both private and public sector organisations, the masterplan will cover key redevelopment opportunities and provide a coherent approach to connectivity, permeability, accessibility and legibility for the City Centre.

For more information go to www.bigcityplan.org.uk.

We are particularly interested in and supportive of work in the renewable energy sector and are therefore delighted to have been appointed by Seren Energy to carry out a Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment on a Wind Energy project in Herefordshire.

Moore Environment has been approved under the Select Accredit supplier accreditation service. This was a long and fairly demanding process, but provides us with a recommendation that we meet prequalification standards for public and private sector procurement.

The process also contained one or two unexpected surprises along the way... go to http://moore-environment.blogspot.com for more detail.

Case Study Sheets

We have now provided some case study sheets for download on our projects page.

Just a few are complete at the moment – we are working on uploading these for all projects – providing a greater level of background and technical detail for all our featured schemes.

Why Employ a Landscape Architect?

We are hoping to culture a greater understanding of the role of the landscape architect and how they can add value to your project. With our designer’s eye, ability to see the broader view and the bigger picture we can aid delivery, produce holistic, high quality and sustainable designs, manage the simplest to the most complex project and maybe even save money. For more information see our blog http://moore-environment.blogspot.com or follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MooreEnv.

Any views or contributions to mail@moore-environment.co.uk

Landscape Institute Case Studies

We have recently prepared and uploaded some case studies to the Landscape Institute website. Projects detailed are A5117 Deeside, Great Barr Park, a brown / biodiversity roof to the new West Midlands Fire and Rescue HQ in Birmingham, Lime Street Station public realm in Liverpool and Hafod Nursing Home in Sutton Coldfield. For more details visit http://www.landscapeinstitute.org/casestudies.

Moore Environment is now fully registered with the local 'Find it' sites of Sandwell, Birmingham and Wolverhampton. These local online networks have been set up by the respective local authorities with the aim of introducing local businesses to opportunities arising from local regeneration projects. Sign up with Sandwell at www.finditinsandwell.co.uk, join the network and why not check out our Mini-site while you are there.

Construction Industry Accredited Performance Scheme

Staff have recently taken part in the CIAPS 'Construction Commitments' training, organised by Sandwell MBC. This forms part of our continued aim of improvement in accordance with the Government's six construction commitments and many leading national and multi-national construction companies endorse the training.

We are now completing our online profile which will result in ‘accreditation’ with CIAPS, and will be illustrated by the 'Supporters of Local Trading' kitemark on our 'Find it in Sandwell' Mini-site.

IEMA Conference

Director Barry Moore and Senior Landscape Architect Richard Waddell attended the conference and manned the Moore Environment exhibition for the 2 day event. The QEII Conference centre offered the most magnificent views over Westminster as can be seen from our photographs on our facebook and linked in pages. Barry and Richard attended a number of useful seminars - for more go to our blog.

Early feedback from the IEMA has been very positive and they consider they have delivered their best conference so far.

Networking

Richard rose to an early morning wake up call on Thursday 4th November to make our fitsy attendance at the 'Find it in Birmingham' Breakfast Networking Event. He then moved on to a new venue in Lichfield to make our first attendance at the Lichfield First Thursday Networking Event.

This event is a privately run network of professionals getting together on the first Thursday of every month (hence the imaginative name for the group), with a view to forging connections for mutual professional benefit.

Environmental Impact Assessment and Development Workshop Coleshill Manor 18th November 2010

We held our EIA and Development in the delightful surroundings of The Gardens Coleshill Manor, with sweeping views across the Warwickshire landscape to the east, and an impressive Birmingham skyline to the west.

Interest in the workshop was very high and the event was booked to capacity by representatives from wide ranging backgrounds, including consultants in environmental issues, surveying, planning, engineering, architecture, developers and contractors from a number of sectors - including land, renewable energy, residential, engineering. For more go to our blog.

SUDS Event

Moore Environment staff attended Landscape Institute Midlands branch SUDS event - 18th November 2010 at the School of Art, Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, Birmingham City University, Margaret Street, Birmingham, B3 3BX.

The presentation covered the requirements for Flood Risk Assessment according to PPS 2S as well as exploring the different forms of SUDS promoted on the market. For more info see our blog.