The sun is shining and the first signs of Spring are visible.  You could almost reflect this in apparent "green shoots" of the economy - or is it my imagination?


This month sees a record number of new commissions at Roger Joyce Associates, including the redevelopment of "Kelston" that has stood vacant for over 5 years.




A relatively uncomplicated renewal of a 4 year old Planning Consent landed on our doorstep this morning, 5 days ahead of target...... well done Shepway DC!



To top it all off, it's billing day with Virtual Girl Friday and a cheque came in the post.... what more could we ask for?


This has been a blog post from www.rogerjoyceassociates.co.uk

Last month, we blogged about the "call for sites", the deadline for which was Monday 3rd February 2014.

We have submitted eleven sites to the Council including a re-visit of Folkestone racecourse (which we blogged about last year). This matter was reported in the Kent Messenger on 22.01.2014.

 We also included a potential site for a Visitor Centre at Shorncliffe.


This links in well to the work being undertaken by the HEART forum. Logo below designed by Phil Rutt of Arc Creative Design.

We are working on a website that should be launched very shortly. Just recently, we arranged a meeting chaired by Damian Collins in the Civic Centre that was attended by the Leader, David Monk, and about 30 others involved in the HEritage & ARts Tourism sectors in Shepway.

A new year brings renewed vigour in our various campaigns to do with opportunities presented by the Local Plan process and the new "call for sites". 

We believe that we may be close to discussions with various authorities on Shepway's Heritage Strategy and that this could have a profound affect on the potential for inward investment around the harbour and at Shorncliffe Garrison.




 
Keep reading for updates...... this is a blog post from Roger Joyce Associates, our main website is here.






 

 
Roger is proud to announce his daughter, Nicola Joyce, has become "INBF female bodybuilding World Champion"

You can follow her story to the World Championships here..... Roger Joyce Associates was one of many companies that provided corporate sponsorship to enable her to compete in Boston, USA.

Well done Nic!
 



is a blog post from Roger Joyce, Chartered Architect, Folkestone. Our main website is here Roger Joyce website.

Cyma Architects and Roger Joyce Associates held a Private View at George's House on 11th October to celebrate the merger of their practices.

Two Folkestone based RIBA Chartered Architects' Practices, Cyma Architects and Roger Joyce Associates have merged. Cyma Architects formally incorporated Roger Joyce Associates in October. The two directs of Cyma, Mark Hall and Charles Bain Smith have enjoyed working with Roger Joyce for a while now, having involved themselves in similar work on historic buildings and new buildings in areas of heritage sensitivity and more recently it seemed like an excellent idea to combine the practices.  Roger's long experience will be of great benefit to Cyma which was formed in 2000.  Roger will continue to carry out his ecclesiastical work under his own name. Cyma moved from Ashford to Folkestone because of the opportunities presented in reviving the town. the combined practice hopes to establish itself as a bridge between conserving the heritage of the town and making the exciting changes needed to sustain it for the future.

See Folkestone Creative November/December 2013 for an article on the preview.




























 is a blog post from Roger Joyce, Chartered Architect, Folkestone. Our main website is here Roger Joyce website.

Time for the Folkestone Rail debate again!

Some years ago, we proposed a solution for Folkestone's '2 Stations' (see my article published in 'Folkestone Creative' magazine, October 2010).



As this recent news article about 'K' college says, they are reviewing their sites, including Folkestone, adjacent to Central Station, so now might be the time to look at our ideas for a 'New Train Station' serving the town. This is linked to a proposed parkway at Westenhanger, ideal for events such as this summer's 'War and Peace Show', that has been secured for Shepway District.

Time for the Folkestone Rail debate again! is a blog post from Roger Joyce, Chartered Architect, Folkestone. Our main website is here Roger Joyce website.

Merry Christmas from the team at Roger Joyce Associates!

Our team 
It's now two years since we started working from home, and life continues to be busy and interesting.

We're still mentoring Marc, who may now defer his part III until next year. He's displaying real stamina and determination to get to that finishing line!

Roger continues outside interests on the Boards of Town Centre Management and The Dreamland Trust, and actively works with the Heritage Arts and Tourism forum that will contribute to the final Core Strategy when it emerges early in 2013. He has again acted as a Civic Trust assessor, and manages to fit in watercolouring classes somewhere amongst all of that!


Our projects: churches, domestic houses and unusual jobs

We've been involved in some fantastic projects in 2012.

We deal with the inspection of 14 Churches, of which four (for the Diocese of Rochester) are ongoing projects. The repair of the lady Chapel at St Eanswythe’s, Folkestone has hit the buffers, but we hope a solution will be found so that it can restart soon. At St Nicholas, Newington, we are waiting to move the oil tank to facilitate the construction of a disabled WC. And the reordering at St Margaret’s, Bethersden, is slowly moving on.

We have carried out extensions for a handful of private houses in Hythe, Folkestone, Canterbury and Margate. These have included the addition of balconies, creation of rooms in the roof, remodelling, and upgrading.

We worked closely with English Heritage on the project to take two Martello Towers off the ‘Monuments at Risk’ register. The attendant woodland management of a 15-acre site, where five houses are proposed as enabling development, has been beset with an application for a Town and Village Green registration. It was fortunately dismissed by KCC, but remains in planning, 19 months after submission of the application!

We've always worked on niche and unusual projects and this year was no different. Some of our favourite jobs won in 2012 include a Natural England grant aided barn repair, a feasibility study for Margate’s Tudor House, works to the Grade II* Conquest House in Canterbury, and conversion of a stable range at a former stud between Folkestone and Canterbury.
 
Looking ahead to 2013

The office will be closed from Friday 21 December 2012 - Wednesday 2 January 2013. When we return in the New Year, we hope that some of the Government initiatives aimed at streamlining the planning system will come into force, and will be effective in cutting time (and therefore costs to our clients) as we move forward.


We all wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the team at Roger Joyce Associates!

Our team 
It's now two years since we started working from home, and life continues to be busy and interesting.

We're still mentoring Marc, who may now defer his part III until next year. He's displaying real stamina and determination to get to that finishing line!

Roger continues outside interests on the Boards of Town Centre Management and The Dreamland Trust, and actively works with the Heritage Arts and Tourism forum that will contribute to the final Core Strategy when it emerges early in 2013. He has again acted as a Civic Trust assessor, and manages to fit in watercolouring classes somewhere amongst all of that!


Our projects: churches, domestic houses and unusual jobs

We've been involved in some fantastic projects in 2012.

We carried out inspections of 14 Churches, four of which are for the Diocese of Rochester. Our project for the repair of the lady Chapel at St Eanswythe’s, Folkestone, has hit the buffers, but we hope a solution will be found so that it can restart soon. We are waiting to move the oil tank, to facilitate the construction of a disabled WC at St. Nicholas Newington , and the reordering at St Margaret’s, Bethersden, is slowly moving on.

We have carried out extensions for a handful of private houses in Hythe, Folkestone, Canterbury and Margate. These have included the addition of balconies, creation of rooms in the roof, remodelling, and upgrading.

We worked closely with English Heritage on the project to take two Martello Towers off the ‘Monuments at Risk’ register. The attendant woodland management of a 15-acre site, where five houses are proposed as enabling development, has been beset with an application for a Town and Village Green registration. It was fortunately dismissed by KCC, but remains in planning, 19 months after submission of the application!

We've always worked on niche and unusual projects and this year was no different. Some of our favourite jobs won in 2012 include a Natural England grant aided barn repair, a feasibility study for Margate’s Tudor House, works to the Grade II* Conquest House in Canterbury, and conversion of a stable range at a former stud between Folkestone and Canterbury.
 
Looking ahead to 2013

The office will be closed from Friday 21 December 2012 - Wednesday 2 January 2013. When we return in the New Year, we hope that some of the Government initiatives aimed at streamlining the planning system will come into force, and will be effective in cutting time (and therefore costs to our clients) as we move forward.


We all wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Almost half the year has gone, we shall soon have the longest day, the Queen has celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, but - life goes on...we had a great, but very wet, day by the Thames watching the pageant, and last weekend was interspersed with parties, family visits, fireworks and Sandgate's latest addition - a beacon......

my last entry mentioned the planning situation here in Shepway. We understand the Inspector gave the LPA  a hard time in the first few days of the EiP, and eventually issued an interim report, essentially supending the hearing, and asking for a few answers - by 8 June (tomorrow). We shall watch the website with interest, to see what is to happen next.

the Racecourse site was thrown out, and so we will have another chance to put our counter-proposals forward, very popular with local communities in Lympne and Sellindge, as well as with the owner of Westenhanger Castle and of course the adjacent landowner. With luck, we may see a proper outcome to the 'Stations' debate, with a Parkway at Stop 24, a new employment zone, fabulous houses on land west of the racecourse, and a less dense development on the site itself, still with the upgraded facilities we are promised

we understand the whole Core Strategy must go out to Public Consultation again, so we will continue to campaign for better facilities in the Harbour, and for our World Class Visitor Centre at Shorncliffe, celebrating that place with History intertwining the proposaed development ( that is if the DIO don't decide to demolish any worth keeping - including, according to Michael Murporgo, possibly the stables that the mythical War Horse was in before going off the the Western Front)

we have just won the commission from Thanet District Council, to prepare a feasibility study for the Tudor House and adjacent 'barns', that we have evry reason to believe was a Malthouse....and we are sweating on a decision by English Nature, to commission us to prepare a schedule for the full repair of medieval barns at Aldington. We continue to work on the Architecture section of the HEART forum's focus groups, and look forward to seeing the work of the Forum come to fruition - it's been a long time coming. As has the appointment of Consultants to advise on the uses to which our Town hall can be put, for the good of all the loacl groups, as wel as providing an HQ for the Town Council. I attended a very interesting workshop led by HRA and Evident Consulting last night, and will look forward hopefully, to getting involved in design decisions relating to use of that building......

well, it's over a month since we launched our new website, and I have to say, we have had a surprising number of contacts because of it.....

very shortly, we will be editing some of the illustrations, and reflecting changes in planning status of projects, but also adding updated sketch ideas on to the 'Sketchbook'

we are about to enter the 'Examination in Public' phase of our Local Core Strategy, and that will prove to be an interesting experience. Many have expressed doubts about the selected strategic housing sites, and from this Practice's viewpoint, scant regard appears to have been taken of the fabulous Heritage of this piece of coast.

Sites involving a medieval castle, once in the personal ownership of Henry V111 and his daughter afterwards, it is thought that significant remains of an Elizabethan walled garden and village exist beneath what is now Folkestone Racecourse, that is subject of a redevelopment proposal, involving 'enabling development ' of 800 or more houses....

another involving the military base established in the light of a threat form Napoleon Bonaparte, in continuous military use ever since. Sir John Moore's redoubt has been identified, and the unique chain of Martello Towers 1-9, all extant, but some on the 'monuments at Risk' register, spread our across the district, interlinked with the nationally important Royal Military Canal and fortifications at Seabrook. Again, in the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, hundreds of acres of this historic barracks is threatened by insensitive development, with no apparent Conservation Appraisal....

a third is Folkestone's historic Harbour, subject of a master plan by none less than Sir Terry Farrell, but, again, the potential loss of 'the story' of the crossing of the channel (pre-dating Dover), and missing the opportunity to take advantage of Folkestone's unique place in the history of WW1..

watch this space......