RE Cornwall Council Freedom of Information Request FOI 101003230217
Category Archives: Evidence Base
Coastal Community Team (CCT) Economic Plan
The Saltash Coastal Community Team (CCT) has created an Economic Plan which aims to promote economic activity in Saltash as a whole (and the Waterside area in particular) through encouraging tourists and local people to visit the area. This is an aim that sits squarely and well-integrated with the vision and aims of this Neighbourhood Plan. The Economic Plan also provides an avenue to grant aid investment from the national Coastal Community Fund scheme.
What makes a good neighbourhood?
Discussion of ‘Neighbourhood Well Being’ gravitates around local empowerment and adequacy of investment, but that there is a clear physical environmental link too. Whilst Neighbourhood Planning is in itself a form of local empowerment, it can also facilitate the delivery of some of the key elements of good neighbourhoods: access to services and facilities, a physical structure that promotes neighbourliness, ease of maintenance, community safety, and good design.
A conceptual statement to guide the NDP policies could therefore be as follows:
Access to Facilities
✓ Essential every-day facilities and services (eg Shop, café, post-box) within 5 to 10 minutes walking distance
✓ Health, educational, financial (ATM) and well-being facilities accessible on foot/bike or short bus trip.
✓ Formal gathering places such as community halls within 20 minutes walking distance
✓ Cycle routes and parking spaces
✓ Clear signage
✓ Disabled Parking spaces
✓ Adequate disabled access
Environment
✓ Informal gathering and play spaces within the public realm
✓ Small open performance spaces
✓ Public wifi
✓ Seating
✓ Trees and planting
✓ Urban allotment opportunities
✓ Simple recycling facilities
Maintenance and Cleansing
✓ Well maintained buildings and street scene furniture
✓ Clean and visible playspaces
✓ Excellent street cleansing
✓ Minimal dereliction, underutilised and under maintained spaces and places
✓ Good air quality
Community Safety
✓ ‘ Design out crime’ – good visibility, no isolated spaces,
✓ Balance activities which may be crime generators such as bars, night time uses, restaurants and entertainment venues in terms of scale, size and local context
✓ CCTV as necessary,
✓ Well defined and purposeful open spaces.
Design
✓ Human Scale – walkable, eye-level, tactile, pleasant smelling, quiet.
✓ Distinctive and unified design that gives a ‘sense of place’
✓ Use of colour and texture to give definition
✓ Respecting scale, height, volume, site coverage and distance from and effect upon, adjacent buildings;
✓ Equality Act 2010 (DDA) compliant
✓ Community Spirit
✓ Spaces that support good ‘Social Capital’ – networks that people are involved in and engaged with others in informal, social activities; membership of groups and associations
More discussion is in the attached note:
Community Engagement Results
To begin at the beginning…..Stalls were set up at various community events and views taken from attendees plus basic survey activity on the day. This resulted in data that was mostly qualitative in nature, gleaned from young people and the older age ranges.
The themes that emerged were:
• Local Services – threats, responding to growth pressures, lack of range, impact of growth on quality;
• Open spaces – amount, location, condition, protection;
• Housing – too many big estates, need more small scale, infill, and to balance the housing market, whilst improving quality of design;
• Town Centre – its offer needs improving to tackle the impact of supermarkets, and improve the street scene;
• Transport bus routes need improving, reduce congestion, tackle eyesore at railway station;
• Environment – our setting is very special, it must be protected, as must our heritage assets;
• Community spirit very good, protect and build on it;
• Our young have high expectations on range of services, jobs, entertainment, transport
People say Saltash needs…..
People say they like about Saltash….
With this information, we then ‘scoped’ out the next stage.
Detailed Survey 2015
Taking into account these themes, and to help us work up the Neighbourhood Development Plan strategy, and the policies need to deliver it, we conducted a more in-depth three part survey that was open throughout summer of 2015.
We distributed questionnaires to as many households as we could reach, a total of 6,764 in all, which involved walking 96 miles in 49 hours spread over three weeks! We also distributed a survey for younger people, and a survey for local businesses.
We also held three drop in sessions at differing times and locations so that residents and businesses could access more detailed discussions about the issues and challenges facing Saltash and the potential planning solutions to them.
In reply, we had 1438 responses from residents, 48 responses to youth survey and 41 responses to the business survey.
What the Community Told Us
You told us that in future, Saltash should be a safe, friendly, attractive riverside location, that is prosperous, tranquil, green and eco-friendly. To achieve this you said that the Neighbourhood Plan should protect and improve green spaces, create better linkages around the town by foot, cycle, road and rail, and strengthen our existing neighbourhoods. You said that more recreation opportunities and better jobs were needed, and that new housing should be in a mix of types that meets community needs. All of this would help build on the existing good ‘sense of community’ in Saltash.
Most of you said that you needed to travel outside Saltash for many services and facilities, and that better local leisure and shopping was needed. You said that more variety and better quality shops were needed in Fore Street, and that more sports, play and entertainment facilities should be provided.
A large majority of you were in favour of improving the ‘evening economy’ of Saltash town centre, through improved community safety, more restaurants and cafes, more events, and good links down to the waterfront. Similarly a majority supported environmental improvements and more leisure uses on the waterfront.
Many of you were also concerned about the need for environmental improvements, picking out the station, parts of waterside, and Carkeel roundabout in particular.
If you want to see a more detailed analysis, have a look at this: Saltash NP Community Engagement Survey Summer 2015
You can see the more detailed results from local businesses here:
Town Centre Businesses Survey Full Analysis
What happened to the information from the survey?
The survey results were examined in detail by working groups, who used them to help shape proposals to go into the Neighbourhood Plan. Information from the survey was also passed to the Town Council and other bodies for their information and use in designing future services for the town.
Saltash Town Settlement Boundary
The reports below explains the logic behind the revised Town Settlement Boundary
Cornwall Allocations Development Plan Document Saltash Documents, Evidence Base
The Saltash Neighbourhood Plan must also take into account the new Cornwall Local Plan Allocations DPD which identifies housing and employment land for Saltash. The DPD has been through Public Examination and it is now the Council’s responsibility to publicise the Report and decide whether to adopt the Site Allocations document with the recommended changes in the next few months.
A pre-adoption copy of the Site Allocations DPD contains all recommended modification as set out in the Inspectors Report and its Appendix (Schedule of Main Modifications). Due to the size of the document, it may take a while to download depending on your connection speed.
The key evidence material of relevance is available by clicking below and following the link for ‘Saltash Town evidence’:
Village Boundary and Site Appraisals
Attached below is the Village Boundary and Site Appraisals Report for the draft Neighbourhood Plan.
SALTASH NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN VILLAGE BOUNDARY AND SITE APPRAISAL
Sustainability Checklist
Attached below is the Sustainability Checklist for the draft Neighbourhood Plan, which shows that the Plan provides for Sustainable Development.
Workshop Two
Following the intensive activity of the Working Groups (WGs), we held a second workshop, this one using the WG findings to draw out the vision for Saltash into objectives, a delivery strategy and draft policy intentions.
Moving About WG – Grid for Policy Discussion
Invest, Work and Learn WG Report
Having considered the reports, the Workshop agreed to the following Vision, Objectives, for the core Steering Group to work up into the final draft Saltash Neighbourhood Development Plan.
==
Workshop One
On 27th October 2015 a workshop with 30 representatives of local organisations was held in the Guildhall. The workshop looked at the response to the community engagement survey carried out that summer (2015), and what it meant for the future planning of Saltash. Presentations on design and planning were also considered. Four working groups were set up at the end of the meeting to take the work forward.
Saltash NP Vision Workshop Agenda
Presentation 1 : Making Landscapes Presentation
Presentation 2 : Making Neighbourhoods Presentation
Presentation 3 : Creating Good Places Presentation
The report on the workshop can be found here: Workshop One Report
