This regeneration master plan is a significant “once in a lifetime opportunity to deliver regeneration for Dover “(CGI) creating a new heritage quarter at Western Heights, linked by a substantial hilltop Countryside Access Area to a new residential community in the valley at Farthingloe.
The Masterplan seeks to create innovative, sustainable new village communities based on a thoroughly 21st Century lifestyle housing concept embracing all generations. The development proposals include 651 dwellings including a retirement village for 90 units.
Parts of the site are either in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or in the Western Heights Conservation Area. In addition, the site boasts both listed Buildings and Scheduled Ancient Monuments that show two thousand years of military history, from the remains of a Roman lighthouse and a medieval Knights Temple Chapel through to fortifications that span in time from Napoleonic times to World War II. The most public benefit is the development of a Country and Heritage Park along with serious investment into both the Scheduled Drop Redoubt, built between 1804 and 1815 and commanding extensive views of the town, harbour and castle, and the Grade II listed Grand Shaft, an underground spiral stair formed of three concentric flights of winder stairs round an open shaft designed by Sir Thomas Hyde Page in 1803-05. The Drop Redoubt will have a new drawbridge leading to a visitor centre and viewing platform at a high level. The use of parts of these monuments for recreational activities, and the provision of history and nature trails, give it importance as a public amenity and a valuable educational resource.
Other facilities on this 242-hectare site include a landmark 4-star 130 bed conference hotel, a fitness club for the residents, a pub in a converted barn, a bed-breakfast in an existing listed farmhouse and a village shop, along with all the associated infrastructure commensurate with a development of this scale.
The masterplan and associated outline design work for the application was undertaken in association with Michael Vacher Associates
