Fairford Leys is a residential village just outside Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, designed in the urban village style, with low-rise streets, geared to pedestrians more than cars. Developers are bound by a government design code to ensure architectural cohesion.
Concept
Fairford Leys is an estate consisting of 1,900 homes, on the western edge of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England. It has its own centre, centred around a square, hosting a number of traditionally fronted shops, award-winning hair salon, supermarket, three restaurants, a nursery, an ecumenical church and a community centre. It also has a private health club with swimming pool which opened in October 2003. The civil parish for Fairford Leys is Coldharbour which is an Aylesbury Vale district. Its northern portion is home to a modern industrial area. The development is an example of an urban village, which is a town planning concept started in the UK in the late 1990s, with its roots in new urbanism and garden city ideals. The emphasis for this type of development is to focus on pedestrians over cars and other forms of community interaction. Fairford Leys is one of the first examples of a development planned using a Design Code, championed by John Prescott and the Labour government of the late 1990s. The aim of the code was to create an urban village development and it sets out design rules during, and also after, the construction phase, to ensure the individual developers all build to the same standard and to create cohesion to the design and appearance of the development as a whole. The driving force behind this was the original landowner, the Ernest Cook Trust. The architecture is inspired by traditional Aylesbury housing styles and pastiche Victorian lamp posts and railings. The centre of the estate is surrounded by the "city wall", a concept originating from the masterplanner John Simpson and inspired by medieval city walls, such as York. This consists of three- and four-storey townhouses and the main entrance to the centre is marked by two towers, loosely modelled on medieval gate towers. Developments in Fairford Leys are controlled by the 16-page guidelines, which are a summary of some of the important aspects of the original Design Code. They govern the look and materials used in several aspects of construction, including roof materials, chimneys, window materials, front boundary fences and planting, and front door colours. The centre contains a higher density of housing, with larger detached properties at the edge of the estate. Originally the design included play areas, open spaces, playing fields and a golf course. The golf course has since been closed and fenced off due to the route of the impending HS2 crossing the area.
St Mary's Church of England School is a mixed, voluntary controlled, primary school, which has about 320 pupils from the ages of four to 11. It was purpose built for the Fairford Leys estate but the education authority underestimated the number of children that would live within the Estate. Consequently, a number of children living within Fairford Leys cannot get a place. In 2009, Buckinghamshire County Council estimate that up to 44 children will not be able to take up a place.
