Longdon Parish Neighbourhood Plan Evidence Base October 2014 Prepared by the Implementation Team at Lichfield District Council Version 4 Longdon Parish Neighbourhood Plan – Evidence Base Contents 1.0 Introduction 1 2.0 Development and Demographic Characteristics 2 2.1 Parish setting 2 2.2 Historic context 2 2.2.1 Historic Designations 3 2.3 Demographic characteristics 3 2.3.1 Age: 3 2.3.2 Rural and urban area classification 4 2.3.3 Households 4 2.3.4 Employment: 4 2.3.5 Deprivation 5 2.3.6 Health 5 2.3.7 Unpaid Care 5 2.4 Crime and Safety 5 3.0 Physical Characteristics 6 3.1 Facilities 6 3.2 Retail 6 3.3 Housing 6 3.3.1 Future Housing Growth 7 3.3.2 Green Belt and Rural Sustainability 8 3.4 Statutory Services 10 3.5 Water abstraction/supplies 10 3.6 Environment 10 3.6.1 Trees, Woodland and Hedgerows 12 3.6.2 Streams, Watercourses and Surface Water 12 3.7 Transport 12 3.8 Economic 13 3.9 Sustainability 13 3.10 Leisure, Open Space and Recreation 14 3.10.1 Natural & Semi –natural Greenspaces 14 3.10.2 Amenity Greenspace 14 3.10.3 Sports Provision 15 3.10.4 Allotments 15 Appendix 1 – Site designations for Biodiversity Appendix 2 – Tree Preservation Orders Appendix 3 – Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (Longdon Parish excerpt) Appendix 4 - Surface Water Management Plan Appendix 5 - References Longdon Parish Neighbourhood Plan – Evidence Base 1.0 Introduction part of the ‘Evidence Base’ for the Londgon This report forms an initial step in the Neighbourhood Plan. production of the Longdon Neighbourhood Plan which will cover the whole of the parish as shown in the plan below. The Neighbourhood Plan will set out a vision for the future of Longdon, Longdon Green, Upper Longdon and Gentleshaw and their hinterland, providing a strategy and land-use planning framework to guide development within the neighbourhood area for the next 15 years. Work on the Longdon Neighbourhood Plan began in December 2012 when the Parish Council made the decision to develop a neighbourhood plan and subsequently applied to Lichfield District Council to designate Longdon Parish as a Neighbourhood Area which was duly designated on 9th July 2013. The development of the plan is being lead by a group of volunteers and Parish Councillors who have formed a Neighbourhood Plan group. The completion of the Neighbourhood Plan is expected to take around 24 months. This document provides a summary of relevant information contained in number of reports, documents and studies that together will form 1 Longdon Parish Neighbourhood Plan – Evidence Base 2.0 Development and Demographic forest of Cannock by the end of the 11th Characteristics century. This suggests the continued dominance of a heavily wooded environment 2.1 Parish setting during the later prehistoric period as the Longdon Parish is a rural parish set on the heavier woodland soils did not favour early western boundary of Lichfield District. It is forms of ploughing technology and predominantly farmland, with an area of forest consequently pastoral forms of agriculture in the west and contains four main settlements, continued to prevail. namely Longdon, Upper Longdon, Longdon Green and Gentleshaw. It is likely that gradual woodland clearance continued throughout the Bronze and Iron Age The A51 runs from the south east to the north with farmsteads and dispersed settlements of Longdon parish passing to the west of present within the HECA. However, the focus Longdon and to the north of Upper Longdon. of later prehistoric activity appears to have The remainder of the roads within the parish been to the northeast of the character area are rural. along the Trent valley. Longdon and Upper Longdon are part of a To the west of Longdon Parish lies the Iron Age group of ‘smaller’ villages within Lichfield hill fort of Castle Ring; this defended site (which District inset into the green belt. The Cannock probably included the area now covered by Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Longdon Parish within its hinterland) provided covers a substantial part of the western side of protection for local residents, stored produce the Parish. including grain and livestock and may have served as a marketplace and focus for feasting. This would suggest a well developed agrarian landscape, typified by dispersed farmsteads, open fields and formal field boundaries. The heavy soil conditions which made the area unsuitable for Neolithic farmers meant these areas probably remained within the control of the native British population and therefore experienced minimal ‘Roman’ development. There is also little evidence of activity during the Anglo Saxon period, although it is likely that the pattern of dispersed settlement and a pastoral economy continued until the medieval period. A dispersed settlement pattern is dominant within the Parish, although most of the villages Longdon was recorded in Wulfric Spot’s will of have seen some expansion during the 20th c.1002-4 when he left land at “Langandune” to century most notably at Longdon and Upper a religious community in Tamworth. It is Longdon. possible that Longdon also formed part of the bishop’s pre-Conquest (1066) estate. 2.2 Historic context Consequently this evidence suggests at least The current understanding of the earliest small-scale human activity during the Anglo landscape of this Historic Environment Saxon period. Character Area (HECA) suggests it was largely heavily wooded until the Bronze Age when An increase in population during the medieval some clearance may have begun to take place period, and up to the 14th century, may have to support a small scale pastoral economy. lead to the transformation of this landscape This area probably formed part of the royal encouraged by the patronage of the church. 2 Longdon Parish Neighbourhood Plan – Evidence Base Longdon continued to form part of the Lichfield estate until the mid-13th century when it became a manor in its own right and the bishops are likely to have been active in enhancing the economic productivity of the area. Documentary sources suggest the bishops were actively assarting (creating enclosures of farmland by clearing the woodland) the landscape around Lichfield and it is likely that they were responsible for the clearing of some of the woodland of the Longdon area during the 12th century. By the later medieval period most of the landscape was being strip farmed. These open 2.3 Demographic characteristics fields were gradually enclosed into small fields The information in this section unless otherwise by Piecemeal Enclosure, through verbal, stated has been generated by the National informal agreements between landholders who Statistics Office from the 2011 census. wished to consolidate their scattered strips into a single holding. Within Staffordshire this In 2011 there were 647 households which process was underway by the 16th century, equates to 1,505 people living in Longdon and continued into the 18th century. The date Parish. of the Piecemeal Enclosure in Longdon parish is not known, but the early date of some of the 2.3.1 Age: scattered farmsteads may provide some The current age structure is shown in the graph indication. below: There are a few discrete areas where field Longdon Population systems are typically geometric pattern with 400 straight field boundaries indicating they were 350 300 probably enclosed by surveyors during the 250 18th/19th century. One of the largest areas lies 200 Number 150 to the west of Chorley and another, less regular 100 in layout, lies to the north of Dark Lane Farm. 50 Both of these areas appear to be associated 0 4 9 9 4 9 4 4 r 1 15 1 2 4 5 8 to 7 e o o o with farmsteads containing elements of 18th 5 to to Ove e Ag d an century buildings and represent either the Age 0Ag to 4 Age 8 to 9 Age 10 Age 16Age to 1718Age t 20Age to 2425Age t 30Age to 45Age 60Age to 665Age to 7475Age t 85 to 89 enclosure of an area of heath land or the re- Age 90 planning of an earlier field system with the Age Group establishment or re-development of the farms. The graph demonstrates that the majority of the 2.2.1 Historic Designations population is over 30 with the largest age group Longdon Green is the only designated being 45 to 59. 13% of the population is aged Conservation Area within the Parish (as shown 15 and under (below the District average of on the plan below) however the Parish does 17%), 58% of the parish is between 16 and 65 contain 4 Grade II* and 27 Grade II listed and 29% is 65 and over. This shows that properties. Castle Ring, a Scheduled Ancient Longdon Parish has a higher percentage of Monument abuts the south western boundary residents over the age of 65 when compared to of the Parish. the statistics for Lichfield District (20%). the West Midlands (17%) and England (16%). This 3 Longdon Parish Neighbourhood Plan – Evidence Base however is not unusual for Lichfield District active people and 406 economically inactive of where the majority (19 of 26 wards) in Lichfield which 293 are retired. Longdon Parish’s have high proportions of older people aged 65 economically active percentage is slightly lower and over. than that of Lichfield District as a whole (65% and 69.3% respectively) although the retirees KEY ISSUE: High percentage of older in this age bracket number 25% which is residents almost 7% higher that the District as a whole. The ward is split with 48% male and 52% female. active/ Economical groupings Number inactive Population projections for Lichfield District from Employees Part-time active 162 2010 to 2035 suggest there will be a growth in Employees Full-time active 365 the overall population (18%).