Castle Point Design Code

Overview

The Castle Point Design Code will shape sustainably and high- quality development across the Castle Point Borough. It aligns with the National Model Design Code (MNDC) and the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) updates of 2024, ensuring developments reflect identity, heritage and best practices.   

The Castle Point Design Code will replace the outdated Residential Design Guidance (2012). This update ensures that design standards reflect current national policy and local aspirations for high-quality, sustainable development.  

The Castle Point Design Code is a tool to guide the physical development of buildings and public spaces to ensure that new developments reflect local character and meet high standards of design. It sets what is required from those submitting planning applications, and to guide developers, house builders and architects prepare submissions and site-specific design codes.  

To ensure the Castle Point Design Code is fully grounded in local context and supports highquality placemaking, the document refers to multiscale design guidance to provide clear and contextual understanding. 

Firstly, the Borough has been divided into four-character areas, aligned with the NMDC area types: Town Centre, Suburban, Rural, and Industrial.  

Recognising the distinct qualities and edge conditions that exist within these broad categories, the Castle Point Design Code introduces an additional layer of ten identity areas. These identity areas capture the finer-grain differences between neighbourhoods and provide more tailored, context-specific coding. This approach enables the Castle Point Design Code to respond sensitively to the varied spatial, environmental, and built-form characteristics found across the Borough.  

The Built form code then provides more specific coding for built form, including guidance on scale, massing, enclosure, frontage design, materials and landscape integration. 

The Castle Point Design Code has been structured as a practical and accessible tool to support developers, housebuilders, architects, and planning applicants from the earliest stages of scheme development. Its supporting tools such as the coding index and glossary ensure that users can easily navigate the document, understand key design requirements, and identify the specific standards relevant to their site. This will help to improve the quality of submissions and ensures proposals align with the Borough’s expectations for high‑quality, context‑responsive development. 

Why your views matter

By consulting on the Castle Point Design Code we are providing residents, businesses, the community and stakeholders the opportunity to provide feedback on the document their previous views helped to create. This will impact what development will look like within the Borough.