A wide range of planning projects from a shipping container hotel to a new football stadium have helped the planning team at Halliday Fraser Munro reach the national finals of the RTPI awards. The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence are the longest running, best attended and most high-profile in the planning sector. The awards champion very best examples of planning and planners in society.
Halliday Fraser Munro, headquartered in Aberdeen and with seven offices across the UK from Leeds to London, is a finalist in the Small Planning Consultancy of the Year category. Halliday Fraser Munro’s planning team provides delivery focussed planning consultancy which benefits from the firm’s wider architectural and masterplanning expertise and offers realistic and considered planning solutions.
Halliday Fraser Munro submitted several examples of work on complex development proposals which its large multidisciplinary team has completed. These included:
Snoozebox - a new concept of modular hotels created from repurposed shipping containers. The team’s task was to help deliver the concept of this highly sustainable and flexible form of tourist accommodation in an innovative way of quickly providing accommodation in high demands areas. The locations for these projects was on presently vacant land on three stalled brownfield sites in London. Challenges in this brief included working with planning authorities on policies relating to temporary uses or developments and the temporary nature of the projects and their challenge to meeting normal planning policy requirements.
Aberdeen Football Club and Aberdeen Football Club Community Trust – Halliday Fraser Munro is the planning consultants for the development of the new football stadium, training and community facilities on a new site west of Aberdeen. The site’s location on the edge of the local authority boundary necessitated an effective, open and transparent programme of public consultation to reach as many stakeholders as possible. Around 1000 people attended the formal consultation events and almost 11,000 public representations were lodged with 53% in support and 47% objecting.
Maverston Golf Estate - Halliday Fraser Munro acted as both planning consultants and architects to deliver planning permission for altering the second phase of a residential development taking account of its rural woodland location and the environmental considerations.
Atholl House in Aberdeen – a redundant office block in the centre of the city and neighbouring the railway station. The Halliday Fraser Munro planning advice to the client was to ‘go high and go bold’. The resulting Atholl Square plans include student beds for 413, a 192 bed hotel, and new public square, cafes and shops.
Steve Crawford, regional director of planning at Halliday Fraser Munro says, “We’re one of only two Scottish-based consultancies amongst the ten finalists for this national award. We’re a highly motivated team and at any one time we are working on a continual stream of innovative and challenging planning projects.
"Our approach is always to be a collaborative planning partner working with our architectural and multi-disciplinary design teams. Being a finalist in these prestigious awards is a clear demonstration of the breadth and quality of our work. We’re proud to be a part of these awards.
"The Snoozebox project required significant negotiation and compromise tailored to each situation. Our team was adaptable and flexible throughout with all stakeholders".
The awards ceremony will be held virtually on 30 April 2020.
Halliday Fraser Munro is an award-winning firm offering architectural, urban design and masterplanning services along with a specialised planning consultancy team. It has offices in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London and Belfast. Further information is available at www.hfm.co.uk.