Design & Access Statements - love them or hate them, virtually every application needs one. At Spindrift we actually rather like the challenge of pulling together the story of the design process. We're fans of using plain english and believe in the power of diagrams. We also understand the value of supporting the planning position and weaving in how key decisions were influenced by the work of technical specialists. The DAS is often the first document that planning officers will read on receipt of your application (even before the planning statement), and so it needs to be written by someone with a holistic view of your entire application, including both the technicalities of planning consent and the design process, and a really great handle on cross referencing. Whilst obviously we enjoy producing DAS for our own design work, we also happily prepare them for planning and design teams who feel that their project would benefit from not only a high quality design and access statement, but also the input of a critical friend as they move through the design process.