The information on this page is about the original Armada Way scheme design (now halted) that was agreed on 14 March 2023. On 19 May 2023 the new administration of the Council formally overturned the decision to proceed with the existing design scheme. For the purposes of responding to Freedom of Information requests, the information and documents about the original scheme have been archived on this page.
The original scheme would have:
For families
- Play and mixed use games areas for all ages
- Water-based play space
- Dancing fountain jets for children to play in
- Refurbished Braille Garden
- New stepped amphitheatre space for small scale performance
For businesses
- Dramatically improved café seating areas
- Attractive places to stop and rest for everyone
- Broken paving replaced
- Investors seeing confidence and commitment
- Refurbished Sundial
- Better environment for their customers
For cyclists
- A new route. Partly-funded by Transforming Cities Fund, this lane will be separate from the main walking route.
- An improved crossing at Mayflower Street and a place to hire ebikes
Climate change measures
The original scheme proposed introducing more resilient trees and plants.
Better suited to an urban environment, they would be more resilient to pests and climate change, including increasing temperatures and extreme weather events. They would have better rooting systems and be fed through a sustainable drainage system with new tree pits to ensure they receive the water and nutrients they need.
Sustainable Urban Drainage (SUD) System
The city centre is in a 'critical drainage area', which means the post-war combined sewer cannot take additional demand. The new SUD system would take surface water from the combined sewer system into a new surface water drainage system, allowing capacity for city centre growth, especially for residential developments.
Rainfall would be stored in underground tanks and rain gardens and water reused to irrigate green spaces and trees, leading to less water in the combined sewer and in heavy rainfall discharging into Plymouth Sound. Planted reed beds would naturally clean and filter water, as well as provide habitat for wildlife.
Biodiversity net gain would be 23%.
Other features
- New street lighting
- Upgrading power and water services for public events
- Planned trenches for a district heating network to connect future residential and mixed use development along Armada Way.
Why did you fell the trees at night?
Given the heavy machinery involved, we thought it would be much safer for the public and the contractors to have as few people around the site as possible. We began to close the site off at 6pm to allow the machinery to get onto the site safely and work began in full at around 8pm.
Why did it happen so quickly?
The delegated decision on 14 March was classed as urgent due to of a number of significant factors including impact on city centre businesses, timescales for scheme delivery and summer events, bird nesting, impact on crime and anti-social behaviour in the City Centre and additional project costs of contractors on site as well as plant hire.
Did you have planning permission?
As this is mainly an alteration to public space and on a road, the scheme is being carried out under ‘Permitted Development’ and is not subject to planning permission. We were advised by the planning authority that the scheme was EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) exempt.
Facts about the trees
169 new trees were planned to be planted and would have been a variety of native trees.
The majority would not be saplings but semi mature trees – between six to eight metres tall.
24 of the existing trees would have been worked into the design of the new scheme, including the Sweet Gum trees planted in the Piazza and the large Tree of Heaven outside of the Copthorne Hotel.
The trees on the Piazza would be broken out of the sewer rings they are currently in and new wide rain gardens formed around their base to add greenery and ensure healthier lives.
The original tree planting scheme was drawn up following a full tree survey by YGS Environmental looking at the condition and life of the trees along the Armada Way corridor.
The aim had been to keep as many trees as possible depending on their health and location. However almost half were damaging the built environment, and were unsuitable for a city centre.
This tree plan was amended a number of times with more trees added and retained following feedback from engagement events.
We have planted over 10,600 trees over across the city in the last two years and are committed to planting more trees in the city centre.
Why are you removing the water feature?
It has not worked properly for 15 years. The feature was a complex structure with three separate pumping facilities, circulating chlorinated water and we couldn't source replacement parts.
Under the original scheme, a stream would have run the length of Armada Way, acting as both an ornamental feature and sustainable drainage with reed beds. The aim is reduce the amount of surface run-off water entering the combined sewer system after heavy rainfall.
Documents
The amendments follow from the engagement programme held to ensure people had a chance to make final comments before the scheme got underway.