Planned Development at Braehead

Proposed Dobbies Garden World - Braehead, Glasgow

What’s your view?

Dobbies, a leading high quality garden centre operator in the UK, is proposing to bring a new state of the art Dobbies Garden World to serve the gardening needs of the Renfrewshire and Glasgow area.

SITE LOCATION AND CONTEXT

The proposed Dobbies Garden World is located on Kings Inch Drive in the Braehead Retail Park. Both the A8 Renfrew Road and M8 lie to the south of the application site. The application site extends to approximately 3.55 hectares (8.77 acres).

PLANNING POLICY

The image below shows an extract of the Renfrewshire Local Plan Proposals Map (adopted 2006). This identifies the specific Planning policies that are relevant to the application site.

The application site forms part of a larger area allocated for locally important business/industrial areas in the Local Plan (Policy IB9). This establishes the principle of development at this site. As part of the forthcoming application submission, Dobbies will provide full justification for developing part of this land for a garden centre rather than for traditional employment purposes (e.g. offices, industry and storage and distribution). It is considered that a garden centre on the site could deliver more local jobs than other forms of employment purposes (e.g. warehouse and distribution) and would provide additional benefits to the local community.

SITE LAYOUT

This proposal is for the development of a Dobbies Garden World at Kings Inch Drive, Braehead. This will comprise:

A modern garden centre, including locally supplied farm food hall, high quality restaurant and a specialist aquatics department, all under one roof.

Extensive indoor and outdoor gardening plant areas including themed demonstration gardens.

The creation of approximately 120 new full and part time jobs across a wide range of employment types and skills including retail, specialist horticultural and management positions.

LANDSCAPING

The proposed Dobbies Garden World at Braehead has will be carefully designed to integrate into the site and minimize any adverse impacts on the landscape and views within and out with the site. Existing landscape features will be retained where possible. In addition, the application proposals will include extensive landscaping to provide new native trees and shrub planting on the site.

A new landscape feature will be created adjacent to the site entrance.

DESIGN

Dobbies will deliver a high quality timber clad building which respects the character and setting of the site.

The general form of the building will be an engineered timber portal framed structure with a combination of timber cladding and glazed frontage with the main entrance as a focal point of the facade.

The front elevations will be clad in a combination of European whitewood horizontal and vertical timber boarding framed within panels and stained to enhance the design. The timber cladding will be articulated with double glazed aluminum glazing panels. The timber cladding softens the appearance of the building and the careful use of glazing makes for an open and welcoming frontage, revealing the horticultural activities within.

The roof will be formed using insulated roofing panels with light grey single ply roofing membrane finish. The roof will be punctured with roof lights to enhance the natural daylight in the building.

SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability lies at the heart of a Dobbies building and measures taken comprise: 

The structure and cladding will be timber from a sustainable source.

The building will generate circa 30% carbon footprint reduction over its life span will be generated.

The building will be designed to the latest BREEAM standards to achieve optimum rating.

Extensive new landscaping will enhance the local ecology.

Construction materials with a low embodied energy value will be used.

Energy efficient light fittings with sensors will be used.

Grey water systems will be introduced to serve public toilets and irrigation.

Solar panels on the roof to provide hot water for domestic use.

It is intended to utilize a Biomass unit on this project.

Recycling is paramount consideration for Dobbies with designated refuse storage bins.

During construction waste will be segregated and recycled or reused where possible.