THE SITE

Context

The coastal town of Redcar lies within the Tees Valley region of north-east England and is located approximately 50 miles from Newcastle and York. The heart of the town sits on a small exposed headland with panoramic views out onto the Redcar Rocks, Coatham Sands and Tees Bay. Parts of the foreshore have designated national and European environmental protected status (see Nature Conservation Constraints plan). To the west of Redcar lies the industrial River Tees and to the east the dramatic cliff line at Saltburn. The combination of industry and the natural environment provides a rich and diverse landscape setting that is highly visible from Redcar seafront.

Like other coastal towns Redcar has seen changes to its traditional markets as a commercial and visitor destination. However, it has maintained a stable visitor profile of around 1.2m visitors per annum (from the Tees Valley sub-region and beyond) who are attracted by Redcar’s traditional seaside facilities.

The planned construction of a new seawall by the Environment Agency will have a major impact on Redcar’s key seafront visitor space. This provides a significant opportunity to transform the quality of the public realm and associated facilities to meet the increased expectations of visitors and residents alike. The potential exists to realign the seawall out-with the areas designated with European environmental protection status.

A mixed-use and leisure development on a 14ha site (Coatham Enclosure) adjacent to the western end of the competition area has reached an advanced planning stage, with a scheduled implementation date between 2008 and 2011.

Click to enlarge

The Competition’s Seafront Strip

The Brief for the competition covers a roughly 1.5Km long linear strip of Redcar’s Seafront. This runs West-East from Coatham Enclosure to the Stray (see Competition Zone Plan) and contains the following elements:

The Esplanade

The Esplanade and adjacent promenade comprise the main seafront visitor zone. A disused bar and nightclub (Leo’s) has recently been demolished to promenade level, whose sub-base forms part of the existing sea wall. Competitors should be aware of the possibility of housing a new, circa 300m² enterprise building for the creative industries on the Leo’s site or closer to the active Regent Cinema. The ‘backdrop’ area (see Competition Zone Cross Section) is made up of shops, cafes, amusement arcades, Lifeboat house and tourist information building, together with some residential uses. The promenade and shops are dissected by an access and service road running the full length of the promenade. There are currently a limited number of access points into the town’s commercial centre.

The ~500m section of the Esplanade designated ‘Key Activity Area’ on the Competition Zone Plan is where designers should focus their effort in terms of their design ideas and perhaps, budgetary spend. Designers are also tasked with proposing a complimentary set of design ideas for the public realm works along the remaining length of the sea wall identified on the Competition Zone Plan (and see below).

Newcomen Terrace to Coatham

Newcomen Terrace is situated to the west of the Esplanade and links to the proposed Coatham Enclosure development site. It continues the seafront promenade and main service road. Located on the eastern edge of the seafront within this area is the Regent Cinema. The ‘backdrop’ zone is made up of bed and breakfast premises, hotels and various residential uses. Views look out on to Coatham Sands and across the Tees Bay.

Esplanade - The Stray (Redcar)

This section lies to the east of the Esplanade and is linked by a coastal promenade along the seawall revetment. The Stray forms a major green open space area popular for visitor activity and giving access to the foreshore area. There is no immediate building ‘backdrop’ area within this zone.

Design Issues
The design approach advanced for Redcar seafront must respond to a wide range of issues specific to the project and the context of this site, including: sustainability, exploiting the location, transport and access, site specific considerations, statutory regulations, planning and environment conditions.

Strengths

The main opportunities of the site that need to be capitalised on are as follows:

A waterfront location that is an established visitor destination with outstanding views of the natural and built environment;
Gateway to Redcar Seafront;
Proximity to Redcar town centre and the planned Coatham Enclosure development site;
Good public transport, pedestrian and cycle links.

Challenges

A number of challenges have been identified to the regeneration of Redcar that will need to be carefully considered as part of a proposed design approach. These are summarised as:

Redcarfunctions as a visitor destination, but without appropriate investment and development faces increasing competition from other attractions;
Low levels of private sector investment in the Seafront zone arising from poor perceptions and lack of creative opportunity;
Poor appearance of buildings, shop fronts and forecourts;
Continued deterioration of the built fabric;
High levels of deprivation in the surrounding areas;
High exposure to marine and nearby industrial environments (i.e. salt water, wind blown sand, staining etc).

Technical Constraints

In addition to the challenges there are a number of technical constraints that will also need to be considered:

The site lies on the edge of Redcar Rocks identified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and the Teesmouth and Cleveland Special Protection Area (SPA) - see Nature Conservation Constraints Plan. Redcar Rocks represents the finest exposure of the Lower Lias in the Yorkshire Basin. These compliment other areas of rocky foreshore within South Gare and Coatham Sands SSSI, including Coatham Rocks and the ‘German Charlies’. Any development affecting these areas will be subject to close scrutiny to ensure they do not have an adverse effect on the ecology, or nature conservation of these special protection areas.
Generally the location of the slipways, the line and shape of the sea wall and revetment are fixed and will determine the edge of the competition area. There may be some flexibility in the position of this line outside of the environmentally designated areas. However, any such proposals should not have a direct or indirect impact on the SSSI or SPA such as to interrupt or impede sediment movement.
All slipways should remain easily accessible to the RNLI, particularly since some become inoperable under storm conditions depending on the prevailing wind direction.
Fishermen based out of Redcar will require a flat area (i.e. not raised) to park and store their boats on the promenade similar to how they park and store them now.
Existing land use and access issues along the promenade will need to be considered to ensure the space remains accessible and functional. The Esplanade is a major east-west access route through Redcar. Competitors should note that when the Environment Agency previously consulted residents about proposals to make the road narrower and only open to one-way traffic, it met with strong local opposition.
Weather exposure is a critical factor in this location as the site is extremely exposed. This is an issue for construction, long term maintenance and visitor use. Appropriate materials should therefore be selected based on their durability.
Security, especially from possible criminal damage will need to be considered at the design stage.

Development Opportunities

In order to bring about the vision for this area, the Promoters are seeking proposals that will:

Add vibrancy to Redcar Seafront and its surroundings;
Enhance Redcar as an attractive coastal visitor destination;
Provide public open areas which maximise opportunities for views out to sea and provide adequate shelter from the wind;
Enhance pedestrian flows by developing and enhancing linkages between the seafront, Redcar town centre and the planned Coatham development;
Deliver high quality public realm;
Provide interest and diversity to encourage vitality and a lively atmosphere.

Planning Policy Context

There are a number of policies from the recently adopted Local Development Framework (LDF - Core Strategy and Development Policies [DPD’s]) and the existing Local Plan that are relevant to this Development Framework.

The most relevant policy of the LDF is policy CS5; the Spatial Strategy for the Redcar Area. The Redcar Area Spatial Strategy aims to promote regeneration, sustainable communities, the economy and the environment through working with the Council. In addition the Strategy identifies a number of challenges for Redcar that are of particular relevance to this Brief.

Other policies from the LDF that should be considered are CS20 and DP2 setting out general design principles, and DP1, DP4, DP5, DP7 and CS21, CS26 and CS28.

The Urban Design Guidelines SPD 2006 and the Statement of Community Involvement, January 2006 should also be taken into account.

For an up to date list of the Council’s local development plan policies, please visit www.redcar-cleveland.gov.uk/ldf and view the ‘Adopted Development Plan for Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council: A Guidance Note’ document.

Supporting information

Competition Zone Cross Section (Pdf format).
Competition Zone Plan (Pdf format) showing seafront strip covered by the competition, location of the Key Activity Area and Backdrop Zone.
Images of Redcar Seafront referenced to Competition Zone Plan (Pdf format).
R&CBC Information Sheets.
Nature Conservation Constraints Plan (Pdf format).
Aerial Photographs (Pdf format).
Historic images of Redcar Seafront (Pdf format).
Historic maps covering Redcar Seafront (Pdf format).

Upon registration (see How to Enter), competitors will be supplied with a unique entry reference number and issued with:

Ordnance Survey Extract (Dwg format).
Plans & Cross-sections through the proposed new sea wall (Dwg formats).

Competitors may also wish to refer to the following web sites that give interesting current and historic images (respectively) of Redcar: