Residential
Former Arlington Nurseries
20
Residential/Employment
Scheme Summary
180 Homes, Care Home, Live/Work Units
East Riding of Yorkshire Council
Community Engagement
The Situation
The former Arlington Nurseries site on Endyke Lane had become a liability for the community. Old concrete foundations from the nursery were still visible across the land, creating large unusable areas that attracted significant fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour — including the burning of rubbish on site.
What should have been a valuable piece of open space between Cottingham and Hull was instead diminishing the area's character and safety. Cottingham lacks any defined entrance or gateway from Hull along Endyke Lane.
The site also sat in a politically sensitive location. The Cottingham Neighbourhood Plan actively protects the open area between the two settlements. Any proposal would need to work with these constraints, not against them.
The Approach
Stratland commissioned Spawforths to prepare an initial community engagement document. Rather than arriving with a fixed plan, two distinct masterplan options were developed and presented to residents — giving the community genuine choices about the future of their area.
Both options were designed around the four priorities identified in the Cottingham Neighbourhood Plan and Design Guide: infrastructure and drainage, parks and open space, securing high-quality development, and expanding economic activity.
Option One retained a larger green gap between Cottingham and Hull, using the space for swales, attenuation basins, and new habitat creation. Option Two brought the green gap into the centre of the site, effectively extending the adjacent Fishers Park and creating a safe, usable space for families and dog walkers within the development itself.
Critically, the engagement was framed around what the community needed — not what could be built. This meant leading with drainage solutions, biodiversity, and the gateway feature before discussing housing.
The Outcome
Both proposals included Sub-Rural and Rural character housing drawn from the Cottingham Design Guide, employment starter units behind the established Endyke Tyres business, a gateway feature giving Cottingham a proper entrance from Hull, sustainable drainage addressing the community's flooding concerns, and new active travel routes connecting Endyke Lane to the wider public right of way network.
Outward-facing development was positioned to overlook existing parks and increase safety through passive surveillance, while completing an enclosed urban block with properties on Middledyke Lane. The site is under 10 minutes' walk from Cottingham Train Station and within 15 minutes of the town centre.
The two-option approach demonstrated strategic sophistication — showing landowners, agents, and the local authority that Stratland works with communities rather than imposing solutions on them.
