Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk 26 THE door industry journal spring 2022 Industry News SBD Collaboration Leads to Designing out Crime at Plymouth’s North Prospect Development One of the country’s biggest residential redevelopments – and the largest and longest-running in the South West – is being built incorporating police crime prevention techniques and measures to help reduce crime and build a safer community. North Prospect, two miles north of Plymouth city centre, has involved demolishing almost 800 poorquality homes, building 1,128 new homes and refurbishing a further 288 existing homes. Under the management of Plymouth Community Homes (PCH), which took on Plymouth City Council’s 14,000 housing stock in 2009, North Prospect was prioritised for improvement with building commencing in 2011. With three phases built already, the penultimate phase is due to complete within the next few months and the whole site by mid-2024. The development replaces a council estate, originally known as Swilly, of mostly three-bed, semi-detached homes, built in the 1920s as ‘homes for heroes’ following World War I. It had all the outward trappings of a garden suburb with large rear gardens for growing vegetables and fruit and neat front gardens bordered with picket fences or hedges. The pavements allowed for mums with prams to pass each other and the narrow streets were home to an occasional milk float or coal cart. However, during the 1960s the homes became beset with structural cracking, wall tie failure and extensive and untreatable dampness. They became difficult to live in and expensive to keep warm. The bombing that targeted Plymouth’s dockyards during World War II led to families who had been feuding in their original streets being rehoused together on Swilly, which became known for criminal and anti-social behaviour. Today, all the homes built and refurbished on North Prospect are designed for modern living with a balanced mix of house types and tenure – affordable rent, shared ownership and just over 40% for private sale – with new residents living alongside those who have remained. This compares with 76% of social rent previously. The homes are energy efficient resulting in lower fuel costs and are easier and cheaper to maintain. To encourage confidence in the development, PCH invited Secured by Design (SBD), the official police security initiative, to work with architects, developers and local authority planners to design
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