​Project: Summer Link, a new neighbourhood of homes marketed under the Kinsted brand

Client: Lovell Southern

Location: Fitzalan Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex

Overview

Summer Link is a new neighbourhood of two, three and four bedroom homes on Fitzalan Road, Littlehampton, just north of The Littlehampton Academy. Archway Green carried out the soft landscaping for Lovell Southern across the plots, the public open space and the show home and sales area, and worked with Lovell on value engineering options to help bring the scheme in on budget.

The result is a set of streets defined by trees, ornamental grasses and a rain garden that manages surface water while looking like a planted border.

The Brief

Lovell needed one landscaping contractor for the whole scheme, from the show home and sales area, which had to be finished first for the sales launch, to the street planting, the gardens of every plot and the public open space at the centre of the development. Part of the planting also had to work as sustainable drainage, and the scheme had to come in on budget without losing the quality of the design.

Our Approach

A first impression for the sales launch. The show home and sales area came first, because that is where buyers form their view of a development before most of it is built. The planting around the marketing suite and customer parking was designed to look established on opening day, with soft silver and green foliage, ornamental grasses and young trees set into generous bark mulched beds, and pergolas giving the show gardens structure and shade.

Streets lined with trees and grasses. Around 256 trees were planted across the development, each with underground guying and RootRain irrigation so that they could be watered at the roots through their first dry summers. The backbone is 98 cherry ‘Sunset Boulevard’ lining the streets, for spring blossom and strong autumn colour, joined by multi-stemmed Himalayan birch for their white bark, Acer ‘Autumn Blaze’, ornamental pear ‘Chanticleer’, small leaved lime ‘Greenspire’, rowan, field maple and silver birch.

Beneath the trees, three ornamental shrub mixes run along the verges and the pedestrian routes. Pennisetum orientale sets the tone, its soft bottlebrush flower heads catching the low autumn light, with Stipa tenuissima, Hebe ‘Red Edge’, Cistus ‘Sunset’, Euonymus ‘Emerald Gaiety’, Viburnum davidii and Bergenia ‘Overture’ building layers of texture and colour. Allium sphaerocephalon adds summer flower that bees work hard. Around 5,700m² of planting was mulched with bark and fed, which keeps weeds down and moisture in while the beds knit together.

A rain garden that looks like a border. Part of the planting is a rain garden, a sustainable drainage feature that collects run-off from hard surfaces and lets it soak away slowly rather than overwhelm the drains. The plants in it have to cope with being waterlogged after heavy rain and dry in between, so the mix was chosen for exactly that: yellow flag iris, Hosta plantaginea, Persicaria bistorta, Veronicastrum, Miscanthus and Molinia. The Persicaria and Veronicastrum also give long-flowering spikes that draw bees and hoverflies through summer and into autumn.

Gardens ready for new owners. Around 6,600 bare root native and hornbeam hedge plants were set out to define boundaries, and wildflower hedgerow and wetland meadow mixes were sown across the open space. Rear gardens were cultivated before around 10,600m² of turf was laid across front, communal and rear gardens, so each home is handed over with a garden ready to use.

A green space around the play area. At the centre of the development is the public open space, set around a fenced play area installed by others. Archway Green landscaped the ground around it. Fresh turf was laid across the lawns and along the curving paths, with wildflower turf on the outer bands and verges, so the open space gives residents a mown lawn for play and picnics and a longer, flowering edge that gives bees, hoverflies and butterflies nectar through the summer. Planting beds were set into bark mulch around the play area fence and along the paths, softening the timber paling and giving the space a garden feel rather than a hard play enclosure.

The Result

With the sales area finished to a high standard from the start, the homes around it could be sold on what the finished streets would look like, not on a drawing. Summer Link now has tree-lined streets, planting that handles its own surface water and gardens ready for new owners, and a maintenance package keeps the streets and open space looked after while the planting establishes.

“Throughout our engagement, Archway Green consistently demonstrated a high standard of production delivery, underpinned by strong project management, skilled site teams, and a clear commitment to quality. During the delivery phase, the team engaged constructively in value engineering, offering practical and cost-effective solutions without compromising design intent, quality, or safety.”

James Lamacraft

Commercial Director, Lovell