Leybourne Lakes Country Park
Project Value: £890k
Completion Date: September 2022
Partners and suppliers: Etec, Saunders Boston Architects, Savernake Property Consultants, UK Leisure Framework, OBL Group
Completed in the late summer of 2022, Alliance Leisure delivered a new café next to the lake at Leybourne Lakes Country Park, which is operated by TMactive. The £890k investment comprised of an eco café building, decking for outdoor seating overlooking the lake, new toilet facilities and a watersports reception and changing area.
With thousands of visitors every month the park needed a catering destination and an upgrade to the existing watersports facilities. The project was developed in an area of natural landscape and as such biodiversity and ecological assessments were extremely important to ensure that all our partners worked within the tightly restricted parameters.
Some key areas that were considered throughout the development included:
Energy Saving Design
The buildingorientation and form maximises free solar gain in winter from the low level sun to reduce winter heating loads.
In the summer months, the deep roof overhang and covered deck provides solar shading to the building, negating the need for mechanical cooling.
The shallow depth of the building combined with windows and doors along the long elevation allows natural ventilation throughout the main seating area without the need for mechanical plant.
Sustainability and Ecological Protection
Create a long-term sustainable financial position.
Careful design to minimise the impact of the building on the local and wider environment.
The simple design and use of durable materials to minimise building fabric maintenance and maximise the building lifespan.
Consideration of flood resilient design and materials as the area is within a flood risk zone.
Redistribution of soil and spoil across the site for landscaping improvements and re-use to minimise off site waste.
Sustainable drainage design strategy to minimise run off into adjacent watercourses leading to flooding. Rainwater is captured and returned to the lake in a controlled manner.
Retention and protection of existing trees combined with additional native planting and landscaping.
Careful design and minimal external lighting to reduce light pollution and interference with resident protected species such as bats. Provision of additional bat boxes.
Systems
Suds strategy for recirculating rainwater into the lake from the building.
Drainage to be filtered and clean discharge recirculated to the lake.
Ecology
Native planting and vegetation. Root protection zones of trees.
Reduced external lighting – Reduced impact on bats – Reduced energy use.
Inclusion of bat Boxes.
Technology Systems
A roof photovoltaic array linked to state of the art Tesla batteries to capture and store free solar electricity to be used in the building operation.
A water source heat pump, with collectors in the adjacent lake, combined with an underfloor piped heating system throughout to provide a low carbon space and water heating solution.
On site bio waste water management system to filter and treat waste before returning it back into the water system.
Sustainable & Ethical Product Choices
Coffee brand: Grumpy Mule https://grumpymule.co.uk/pages/making-a-difference
Tea brand: Clipper
The world’s largest Fairtrade tea brand. Their teabag, strings and tags are unbleached, the teabags are sealed with plant based bio materials and so can be composted, and all of the packaging is recyclable.
https://www.clipper-teas.com/about/our-ethics/ and their sustainability practises can be found https://www.clipper-teas.com/about/our-sustainability/
