Steve Quartermain CBE, Chief Planning Officer for England has this month reminded Planning Authorities of the important role of planning in delivering a safe and secure built environment.
The letter recommends pre-application discussions between planning officers and security advisors to ensure a shared understanding of the level of risk and the sort of measures available to mitigate the risk in a proportionate and well-designed manner.
Gavin Jones, Director of SABRE at BRE Global welcomed the letter. Gavin said ‘this is a timely reminder of the need to adopt a risk based approach to security and to develop solutions that address the specific and often unique requirements of a given development project. Engagement of both private and public sector specialists to help shape early development proposals will ensure that interventions are cost effective, operationally effective and compliment overall planning objectives.’
BRE Global recently launched SABRE, a 3rd party security assessment and certification scheme which can be used by developers, their project teams, the police and planners to manage the integration of security in new development. The scheme is aligned with the RIBA Plan of Work, ensures that planning policy objectives can be met, and at the end of the process results in a globally recognised mark of approval.
Like BREEAM, SABRE is delivered by a network of independent Assessors. For further information about registering a development with the scheme, please contact [email protected]. The letter is available here.