In this article, Lee Witts, Group Director for Land, Development and Communities at Brookbanks, shares his thoughts on why high quality technical detail and a genuinely multidisciplinary approach are fundamental to turning planning policy into practical outcomes, protecting value and saving client’s time.
Too many development proposals still begin with strong intent but a fragile foundation. The vision is ambitious, the public narrative is persuasive, the imagery is polished, but key constraints are pushed back. Risks are reduced to hopeful assumptions. Difficult points are softened to keep a programme moving. Later, when policy tests tighten, capacity is challenged, or construction reality intervenes, projects stall, value erodes and relationships with partners and authorities become strained. Brookbanks exists to prevent that cycle.
For the promoters, housebuilders, investors and landowners Brookbanks works with, the early questions are consistent. Can this site secure consent in line with national and local policy? Can it be serviced in a way that works on the ground? Can flood risk, access, utilities, ground conditions, environmental risk and sustainability be addressed without destroying viability? Can the scheme move from allocation or outline concept to a position a funder or purchaser will trust? None of these questions can be answered in isolation. The truth sits in the interaction between flood risk and drainage, utilities, transport and access, ground and environment, noise, air quality, climate resilience, sustainability, buildability and a robust disposal strategy. Neglect one, and it will surface later in the form of delay, redesign or objection.
High-quality technical detail is not about producing the largest stack of paper. It is about clarity, relevance and alignment with the exact policy and regulatory tests that matter. Brookbanks starts by understanding the decision a client needs to make and the hurdles the scheme must clear, then builds a technical narrative that speaks directly to those tests. In flood risk, that means more than colouring plans and repeating standard phrases. It means interrogating how modelling, climate allowances, finished floor levels, safe access, phasing and emergency planning align with the layout, critical infrastructure and delivery strategy so that the proposal genuinely satisfies the policy position, not an outdated version of it.
The same applies to drainage. A compliant strategy is not just about showing storage volumes and outfalls. It must reflect adoption requirements, maintenance responsibilities, nutrient neutrality, water quality, biodiversity, future climate and realistic construction sequencing. When this work is done early and properly, it removes one of the most common sources of late design change, planning delay and mistrust between stakeholders. It turns policy language on sustainable drainage and resilience into clear design moves that officers and consultees can support at the first serious review, instead of the third.
Utilities capacity and infrastructure are another regular source of frustration across the sector. Under cooked allowances and optimistic assumptions can quietly undermine land value and derail programmes. Brookbanks addresses this directly. The team engages early with providers, secures realistic views on available capacity, identifies reinforcement and diversion requirements, and integrates these into corridor planning, levels, junction locations and phasing. That approach translates policy expectations on infrastructure planning into a credible sequence of actions and investments that can be explained simply to both decision makers and funders. It is also a significant time saving: avoiding last minute redesign around a substation, sewer or main can remove months from a programme.
Transport is handled in the same integrated spirit. A robust access and movement strategy is not a collection of isolated junction drawings. It is a coherent story about how people will travel, how the site supports sustainable modes, how it responds to safety, capacity and design requirements, and how it reflects the direction of national and local transport policy rather than the lowest historic baseline it can find. Brookbanks focuses on early optioneering that ties together quantum, layout, parking, sustainable travel measures and off site works. By doing this once, well, with all the disciplines in the room, clients avoid the loop of repeated submissions, piecemeal comments and incremental conditions that consume time and goodwill.
Ground conditions and environmental risk are treated as fundamental viability and policy matters, not technical footnotes. Abnormal foundations, contamination, stability, groundwater and earthworks directly affect both the numbers and the credibility of the planning case. Brookbanks expects its assessments in this space to connect to levels design, drainage, utilities strategy, highway design and phasing, and to speak clearly to policy requirements around land quality and safe development. When constraints are acknowledged early and paired with practical remediation and engineering strategies, conditions can be drafted cleanly, purchasers can price intelligently, and programmes avoid the limbo that comes with unresolved investigation and negotiation.
Noise and air quality have moved firmly into the mainstream of political and community concern. They cannot be treated as box ticking exercises. Brookbanks approaches them as shaping factors in placemaking. Baseline work is honest, receptors are chosen with care, and mitigation is developed in a way that links sensibly to layout, orientation, facade performance, landscape and green infrastructure. That approach does more than secure compliance. It helps clients present a scheme narrative that aligns with local priorities on health and quality of life, reducing objection risk and shortening the path to a defensible officer recommendation.
Sustainability and climate resilience run through all of this. Policy on carbon, energy, nature, heat, water and stewardship is moving quickly and is increasingly joined up. Brookbanks treats these themes as shared responsibilities for the multidisciplinary team. That means ensuring drainage, utilities, movement, ecology, building performance and long term management are considered together, so that commitments are consistent, deliverable and focused on practical outcomes such as reduced operational cost, lower retrofit risk and stronger community support.
The important distinction is that, for Brookbanks, multidisciplinary working is not a label on an organogram. It is a way of operating. On complex and strategic sites, specialists sit together and treat the project as a single system. A change in drainage triggers immediate checks on utilities, roads, earthworks, biodiversity and land take. A refinement in access arrangements prompts review of phasing, infrastructure triggers, school and community facility delivery and construction logistics. An adjustment to density is stress tested against flood risk, amenity, parking, open space, viability and disposal strategy. This behaviour is embedded, not performed once at the end.
This approach has a direct effect on how planning policy is converted into approvals and then into built outcomes. Because the policy tests are understood and addressed coherently across disciplines, submissions arrive in front of officers and consultees in a stronger state. Technical notes line up. Drawings tell the same story as reports. Mitigation is realistic. Conditions can be framed cleanly. That reduces the rounds of clarification, additional information and redesign that quietly drain programmes of months. It also builds confidence. Decision makers can see that the scheme has been thought through as a whole, not reverse engineered to dodge individual requirements.
For clients, the benefit is measured in time and certainty as much as in technical quality. Early integrated work reduces the risk of late objections, contested conditions, undeliverable obligations and cost shocks that lead to renegotiation. It supports quicker progression from allocation or promotion, through outline, to reserved matters and delivery. It strengthens positions with funding partners and purchasers, who are increasingly alert to the difference between optimistic promises and properly assembled evidence. In a market that is less forgiving of delay and risk, that distinction is material.
This is the environment in which Lee Witts and his colleagues operate. As Group Director for Land, Development and Communities, Lee’s role is to ensure that Brookbanks brings this standard of integrated, policy literate technical thinking as a default setting, not an exception reserved for showcase projects. His focus is on joining up disciplines, challenging assumptions early, and making sure that every piece of advice helps move a site closer to being truly deliverable, not just theoretically consentable. The objective is clear and consistent with the values of Brookbanks as a whole: no shelf reports, no wishful thinking, only robust, joined up, outcome focused support that turns complex policy and technical requirements into confident decisions, resilient consents and high quality places that can be delivered in the real world.
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Welcome to our November newsletter. In this issue, we dive into the latest Planning & Infrastructure Bill updates, share insights on avoiding hidden site costs, spotlight new podcast episodes, and celebrate some fantastic team news. Plus we are looking ahead to what’s next, inviting you to our last webinar of the year. We hope you find these updates informative and inspiring as we work together toward smarter, sustainable development