Berkhamsted
High St/Water Lane redevelopment
Ecology
While the site is being
comprehensively
reconstructed there is a golden opportunity to incorporate advanced
ecological concepts into the design. Shops, restaurants and
supermarkets have large carbon footprints, largely because of
refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat loss through the doors. The
inclusion of water harvesting, solar heating, heat from the
ground and other forms of micro-generation measures on site would help
to offset the increased energy demands of the development and could be
included at comparatively low cost in such a radical rebuild.
Another opportunity that should not be
missed is
bringing the infrastructure up to modern standards. The sewers in
particular are old and becoming less adequate as demand increases.
Shops in a pedestrianised Water Lane
These shops are smaller than two of the
ones they
replace, Waterstones (No longer Ottakers) bookshop and Laura Ashley
which will thus be lost to the town. Water Lane will be a second rank
shopping area such as Lower Kings Road and will attract the same type
of shop. These by, their nature, tend to be marginally profitable and
transient.
This is not the time or place to build
high rent small shops.
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High Street shops near Water Lane
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