Epping Forest District Council Local Development Framework Annual Monitoring Report December 2005 1.0 Introduction As part of the Local Development Framework system that has now replaced the Local Plan based system, Planning services are required to produce an Annual Monitoring Report each year for the preceding financial year. This report looks at a number of policy areas, and shows the performance in each by the use of a number of indicators. This performance is then evaluated against the targets set in local or national policy, or against the policy itself if no firm measures exist. This is our first Annual Monitoring report, and as such is very much a learning experience for us as a Council. If there are areas of the report which you think could be improved, or additional information that could be added please contact us at
[email protected]. In future years we plan to add a number of Local Indicators, but in this first year we have chosen to use only the criterion specified by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). 2.0 Population of Epping Forest District 2.1 Census Background With few exceptions, a Census of Population has been undertaken in the United Kingdom every 10 years since 1851. The amount of data produced has increased dramatically in recent years, particularly with the advent of new technology Epping Forest District is an attractive, predominantly commuter area on the north- eastern edge of London. The district has a population of around 121,000, of which nearly three quarters live in the suburban towns of Loughton, Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell, Epping and Waltham Abbey.