Ruislip development secures Small Development Award at SBD ATLAS 2025

Located on Elm Avenue, Ruislip, the development, which achieved SBD Gold accreditation in April 2024, comprises six residential properties, each with a dedicated parking space and secure cycle storage. The development exemplifies how small-scale housing schemes can successfully incorporate SBD principles from the earliest stages to completion, creating a secure and attractive environment.

The project benefitted from early and consistent collaboration with Designing Out Crime Officer (DOCO) Robert Palin of the Metropolitan Police. The developer, already experienced with SBD requirements through previous schemes in the area and a standing SBD planning condition agreement between Hillingdon Council and the North West London DOCO team, worked closely with Robert over a two-year period. 

Security-led design changes

The project saw several important refinements as a result of SBD input:

• Postal security: The postal strategy was addressed through discussions with the DOCO, resulting in the adoption of external mailboxes from DAD, compliant with updated TS 009 standards. This avoided the need for postal workers to enter the building while maintaining a clean, secure design.
  
  
• Cycle storage: Plans for open Sheffield stands in the communal garden were revised, with the developer installing an SBD-approved steel cycle enclosure supplied by Asgard, ensuring secure storage for residents.
  
  
• Access control: The originally-proposed ‘meet and greet’ entry was reconsidered in favour of a more secure intercom system, enhancing access management without compromising usability.
  
  
• Defensive planting: Pyracantha shrubs were installed beneath ground floor windows. This defensive planting, in communal and public-facing areas, acts as both a visual deterrent and physical barrier.
  
  
• Lighting: An appropriate lighting scheme was agreed to further support surveillance and safety across the site’s extended perimeter.

Delivering in a challenging context

The site’s location on a corner plot, with a sloped gradient and extended boundaries exposed to the public realm, presented inherent security challenges. However, the developer employed every relevant SBD recommendation to create a defensible, secure scheme.

In a borough where burglary levels are above the national average, the success of this development is noteworthy. In a follow up by the DOCO, no police calls or recorded incidents were linked to the site between April-December 2024, highlighting its performance in deterring crime.

DOCO Robert Palin said: “This development shows what can be achieved when developers embrace SBD principles. The applicant went above and beyond, installing steel security doors from Lathams - far exceeding minimum requirements - and took a genuinely proactive approach throughout. I couldn’t fault the design if I tried. It stands as a textbook example of small-site excellence.”

This award celebrates the value of planning conditions requiring SBD, and the ongoing success that comes from developers who, through experience, now see SBD as an essential tool in delivering safer communities.

Robert was presented with the award at Secured by Design’s ATLAS training event by Police Crime Prevention Initiatives CEO Guy Ferguson and South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Lauren Poultney, the head of profession for police Designing Out Crime Officers.

What is Secured by Design?

Secured by Design (SBD) is the official police security initiative that works to improve the security of buildings and their immediate surroundings to provide safe places to live, work, shop and visit.

SBD’s product based accreditation scheme – the Police Preferred Specification - provides a recognised standard for all security products that can deter and reduce crime.

There are currently many hundreds of companies producing thousands of attack resistant crime prevention products, across 30 different crime categories, which have achieved Police Preferred Specification.

Improved security

Developers around the UK can achieve SBD awards for incorporating crime prevention measures and techniques into their developments in all kinds of building sectors, such as residential, education, health, transport, commercial, retail, sport and leisure. Indeed, SBD can be used as evidence to discharge third-party obligations under Part Q of Schedule 1 (Security) to the English Building Regulations, the Scottish Building Standard 4.13 (Security) and Welsh Building Regulations Part Q (Security – Dwellings). These awards are gained by working with police Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs), who advise architects, developers and local authority planners long before construction begins – and continue to provide advice and guidance until the development is complete. 

Academic and other research shows that improving standards of security in brand new and refurbished properties, helps deter and reduce crime. Reducing crime and the fear of crime has direct links to better physical and mental well-being, such as with regard to high volume crimes like domestic abuse.    

The built environment influences the behaviour of people who work, live, socialise or simply pass through. SBD seeks to create environments where the law-abiding feel safe and secure whilst at the same time causing the criminal or anti-social to feel vulnerable to detection and thereby influence behaviour in a positive way. This continues to be a key objective for SBD.

Find out more about SBD Developers Awards here.

SBD Design Guides

SBD has produced a series of authoritative Design Guides to assist the building, design and construction industry to incorporate security into developments to comply with the Building Regulations in England, Scotland and Wales and meet the requirements of SBD.

These Design Guides, available to download for free at the SBD website, have been updated over the years to keep pace with changing patterns of criminal behaviour and advances in building design and new technology.

They are a valuable source of reference to architects, developers, self-builders, local authority planners and police officers and cover a range of building sectors, including residential, education, health, transport and commercial.  

Police Designing Out Crime Officers

DOCOs provide specialist crime reduction advice to the public, businesses and colleagues about premises or property security. They also work with building developers, architects, and council planning departments regarding new developments and refurbishments, to 'design out' crimes like burglary and anti-social behaviour (ASB) by providing advice on street lighting, building and street layout, entrances and exits - as well as preferred standards and specifications for doors, windows, and locks, under the Secured by Design initiative. 

DOCOs are able to deliver site specific interventions required to help design out crime in areas that suffer disproportionately from acquisitive crime, based on local crime pattern analysis, police, local authority and community engagement and the collective knowledge and experience of how criminals behave.

DOCOs are specialist problem solvers, working every day to make a positive difference, changing lives for the better and helping people to be safe and secure in their homes.

Contact details for local DOCOs can be found here.