What the Design Code covers — and what that means for Stamford North
The Design Code for Stamford North will set out clear guidance across four broad areas. Together, they will ensure the new place feels genuinely ‘joined up’ and cohesive, whilst offering the variety and individuality that gives great places their character.
This explains how the Code could impact each of those areas in Stamford.
1) The way buildings look and feel
The Design Code will create boundaries within which different designers can work — preventing development that feels either homogenous or incoherent.
It sets guidance and limits to shape the overall form and feel of the neighbourhood, including building height, massing, and how buildings relate to one another and to the wider landscape.
Building height will be one of those factors. Most two-storey buildings in Stamford are 6-to-9 meters high. Three storey Georgian terraces are typically 12-to-15 meters.
The design code will respect the perspective, views and privacy created by those heights, and the importance that landmarks like your churches and town all remain visible and distinct. It will also calculate the impact of the valley and landscape on the skyscape.
2) The character of areas within the new place
It’s important to re-stress that Stamford North is not intended to feel like a single uniform housing estate. The Design Code will support a neighbourhood made up of distinct areas with their own character — while ensuring they still relate to each other and to Stamford as a whole.
This will be evident in the relationship between built form, landscape and the site’s boundaries.
The code will emphasise that Stamford North should be shaped from its landscape (a fundamental aspet of the master plan). Stamford is defined as much by its setting as by its buildings, and the code will treat landform as the organising structure of the development.
Where the site borders existing parts of the town, the code will emphasise thoughtful boundaries, planting and changes in level, so the new development feels like a considerate neighbour rather than a hard line drawn on a plan. We will consider this with those who are directly impacted.
3) Spaces: streets, paths, parks and the places people meet
Where the master plan establishes the overall layout — roads, paths, parks and key destinations — the Design Code focuses on how these spaces will actually look, connect and feel in daily life.
This includes clear guidance on street hierarchy, route character, junction design, and the experience of moving through the place on foot and by bike.
It will consider, for example how some streets are designed largely to connect (including two-way bus movement and stops) while others will be quieter and more pedestrianised, focusing on an environment where children can play and neighbours meet.
Junctions, crossings and gateways will be designed with a calm, pedestrian-friendly character in mind.
Walking and cycling routes will weave through green spaces, connecting the new place and linking Stamford North back into the town.
The code will also highlight ‘key places’ that need to be particularly well-served and safe (like the local centre, almshouses and sport grounds) where extra care is required because they play a wider community role. They include:
- Ryhall Road, where the code will set expectations around building placement, landscape treatment and access, including restrictions on individual driveways, so that the road feels safe and coherent
- The primary school, with routes, edges and setting integrated with streets and green spaces rather than an isolated island. The Code could, for example, include ‘play on the way’ spaces for parents to mingle and allow children to roam safely.
- The local centre, is intended to have a civic quality: a street or small square that feels enclosed by buildings, animated by front doors and windows, and comfortable to spend time in. It could, for example, include outdoor seats, ping-pong tables and places to play. Along the main street, the code will allow subtle changes in width and building form to create social spaces and moments of pause.
4) Sustainability
Sustainability in the Design Code is not treated as a bolt-on. It is embedded throughout: how people move, how green space supports nature, and how water is managed.
Valley Park, for example, is designed not as leftover land but the backbone of the new place. It runs east to west and will shape how people move and where homes sit.
Valley Park is intended to serve several purposes at once:
- a place to walk and spend time
- a route connecting the town to the countryside
- a setting for wildlife
- a natural way of managing rainwater
Rainwater is guided through planted channels, ponds and swales — SuDS — allowing it to slow down and soak naturally into the landscape rather than being managed artificially through pipes and man-made infrastructure. The aim is a landscape that changes with the seasons and feels alive, not engineered. (We will publish a separate article on SuDS in Stamford).
Alongside this, the code will enable good walking and cycling connections through and beyond Stamford North, helping reduce reliance on cars and supporting healthier daily routines.
The Design Code is less about control for its own sake, and more about care: care for the landscape, for the town, and for the people who will live in and around Stamford North for generations.
Please get involved
The Code is not pre-written, and we want it to reflect everything you love about Stamford. Its role is to ensure that the town retains its character and that the new place becomes a wonderful and seamless addition to the town.
In the next few months we’ll be asking for your views and there’ll be lots of easy ways to get involved: guided walks, online questions about your preferences and views, informal workshops and more formal public consultation. We’ll also be meeting people who live next to the site to discuss our treatment of land on the site’s boundary.
Please keep checking the website for updates and let us know if you would like to receive email updates.