SWDP – homes, jobs, travellers and transport
11:00am Wednesday 22nd June 2011
- Share
- Comments(0)
Homes for older people
THE strategy has little to say about exactly how many new homes there will be for the county’s older people.
But it does clearly point out Worcestershire has a rapidly growing older population, noting average incomes are higher than the regional average, betraying the fact there is a higher proportion of
retired people with investments.
One source of evidence in the strategy estimated south Worcestershire would need 9,600 new households for over 75s by 2030.
And town planners have identified a problem in the future, as the growing elderly population in rural areas struggles to get to their doctors, or to the shops, without a clear development policy
keeping services within easy reach.
However, delivering homes for older people, be they care homes, extra care accommodation, sheltered accommodation or bungalows, will be driven by the market with sites such as the former Ronkswood
Hospital, Worcester, where a ‘care village’ is being planned by developers.
Housing associations such as Worcester Community Housing will also have a role to play in making available affordable housing to older people, with the strategy saying 40 per cent of new
developments must be affordable.
Homes for younger people
KEY to the strategy is providing enough cheaper housing to keep young people in the area, through building affordable housing.
The term is a catch-all for housing association (formerly council houses) or registered social landlords’ properties which are rented (social rentals), or private rentals, or shared ownership
homes.
South Worcestershire needs 600 affordable homes per year, with half being social rentals, so the strategy makes its policy to make 40 per cent of all new developments with five homes or more
affordable.
For example, at Broomhall and Norton Barracks, 408 of the 2,450 homes will be affordable ones. When the sites have fewer than five homes, developers will have to pay a contribution towards local
affordable housing instead.
In rural areas, ‘exception sites’ will mean that where parishes identify a local need, a development could be entirely social housing – aimed at allowing young people to stay in the areas they grew
up.
Jobs
THE strategy cannot control the economy, but its authors want to make it easier for firms to do business in the county.
What the strategy does is set out the release of 309 hectares of land for firms that are relocating or expanding in Worcestershire or entirely new firms coming into Worcestershire.
The focus is on developing the A38 technology corridor – another planning term for the industrial area running north to south from Droitwich, through Worcester and into Malvern.
The strategy wants to keep big firms such as Worcester Bosch, Mazak Kamazaki, and QinetiQ in the area, maintain big attractions such as the
Three Counties’ Showground while also attracting new investment.
Focus has also been placed on growing Worcester as a retail and tourism centre, with Droitwich, Malvern and Evesham maintaining bustling high streets and boosting visitor numbers.
Paul Middlebrough, Wychavon District Council leader, said there was “no strong demand
for more retailing in Malvern and Wychavon, so we will protect retail already there.”
Small-scale rural businesses will also be encouraged, and policies will focus on making it easier to convert farm buildings and encourage work-from-home firms through planning decisions.
Transport
SERIOUS investment in road, rail, schools and other services will be needed to support proposed new homes and businesses.
The development plan cannot directly control the construction of the infrastructure, but supports the county council’s Worcestershire Local Transport Plan.
Worcestershire Parkway rail station at Norton and an improved A4440 southern link road at south Worcester are listed as key priorities. The station would serve a proposed 2,450-home development at
Norton, sitting on the Bristol to Birmingham main line.
The strategy says easing congestion on the A44, the A38, and A449 and the A443 are important to attract residents and new business.
Worcester “will need investment in an integrated rapid transit network for bus and rail…and the strategic road network” it says. Included are policies for more cycling and walking routes at new
developments encouraging people to use anything but their own car. There is emphasis on employment land being nearer to residents, cutting car journeys.
The issue is cost and developers will be “expected to contribute a significant amount” towards these infrastructure improvements through special agreements and the Civil Infrastructure Levy,
together with government funds.
David Hughes, Malvern’s planning chief, said: “Without a plan we won’t get the infrastructure.”
Travellers’ pitches
GOVERNMENT planning rules mean south Worcestershire must provide at least 172 pitches by 2030. The pitches will be both permanent and temporary, and evidence shows there is a need for such sites
given the trouble caused recently when travellers turned up at the Old Porcelain Ground at Perdiswell in Worcester.
Wychavon District Council is already well ahead of the game, having permitted 48 pitches in four years.
During the same period, Worcester City Council delivered none and Malvern Hills
District Council two, but both will have to allocate another 46 by the end of the strategy’s first phase in 2017. The proposal identifies the new Broomhall and Norton site, and the Temple
Laughern site as areas for pitches as well as areas across south Worcestershire.
• For a full list of what could be built – and where – see today’s Worcester News.
Comment now! Register or sign in below.
Or
Log in with