Green Infrastructure Strategy Report
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September 2009 ST EDMUNDSBURY GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE STRATEGY Final Report Prepared for St Edmundsbury Borough Council by Land Use Consultants ST EDMUNDSBURY GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE STRATEGY – FINAL REPORT Prepared for St Edmundsbury Council by Land Use Consultants September 2009 43 Chalton Street London NW1 1JD Tel: 020 7383 5784 Fax: 020 7383 4798 [email protected] CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................... 1 A Definition of green infrastructure....................................................................................................... 1 Purpose and scope of the GI Strategy ................................................................................................... 2 Report structure......................................................................................................................................... 2 PART ONE: CONTEXT AND EVIDENCE BASE ............................... 7 2. POLICY AND STRATEGIC CONTEXT.......................................... 9 Overview - Promotion of green infrastructure in planning policy .................................................. 9 Growth........................................................................................................................................................11 Existing green infrastructure strategies ...............................................................................................18 Policy and guidance relating to green infrastructure environmental themes – key messages 23 3. CHARACTERISATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF EXISTING GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE ASSETS........................................... 29 Open Space, recreation and access links.............................................................................................29 Biodiversity.................................................................................................................................................45 Place and character ..................................................................................................................................53 Cultural heritage .......................................................................................................................................59 4. NEED AND DEMAND ANALYSIS................................................. 67 Sustainable resource management........................................................................................................67 Socio-economic.........................................................................................................................................70 The growth agenda...................................................................................................................................81 Accessible green space deficiency.........................................................................................................82 5. SPATIAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE93 PART TWO: VISION, STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN ............... 95 6. A VISION FOR GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN ST. EDMUNDSBURY .............................................................................. 97 7. ACTION ZONE VISIONS ............................................................... 99 A: Black Bourn and Little Ouse Headwaters .....................................................................................99 B: Brecks...................................................................................................................................................100 C: River Valleys .......................................................................................................................................101 D: Bury St. Edmunds..............................................................................................................................103 E: Haverhill ...............................................................................................................................................103 F: Historic Parkland and Woodland ...................................................................................................104 G: Ancient Farmland ..............................................................................................................................105 8. POTENTIAL PROJECTS FOR ACTION ZONES AND ACCESS LINKS ............................................................................................... 113 i 9. PROJECT BUSINESS PLAN.......................................................... 141 Project Prioritisation..............................................................................................................................141 Table 9.1 Project prioritisation plan zone A ....................................................................................143 Table 9.2 Project prioritisation plan zone B.....................................................................................144 Table 9.3 Project prioritisation plan zone C ....................................................................................145 Table 9.4 Project prioritisation plan zone D....................................................................................147 Table 9.5 Project prioritisation plan zone E .....................................................................................150 Table 9.6 Project prioritisation plan zone F .....................................................................................152 Table 9.7 Project prioritisation plan zone G ....................................................................................152 Table 9.8 Project prioritisation plan - green corridors..................................................................153 Detailed consideration of capital and revenue costs to guide future investment in the green infrastructure network..........................................................................................................................157 Towards a shortlist ................................................................................................................................169 Next steps – recommendations for St Edmundsbury Borough to take delivery forward.....177 ii FIGURES Figure 1.1: Study area Figure 2.1: Growth Figure 2.2: Growth area and growth points Figure 2.3: Green infrastructure context Figure 3.1: Open space by typology Figure 3.1a: Open space by typology – Bury St Edmunds Figure 3.1b: Open space by typology – Haverhill Figure 3.2: Access links (Borough wide) Figure 3.3: Density of Public Rights of Way Figure 3.4: Nature conservation sites Figure 3.5: Biodiversity opportunity mapping Figure 3.6: Suffolk County Council Landscape Character Types Figure 3.7: Cultural heritage designations Figure 4.1: Flood risk Figure 4.2a-d: Indices of deprivation 2007 Figure 4.2e-g: Indices of deprivation 2007 and percentage of households that are flats (2001) Figure 4.3a-d: Deficiencies in access to natural green space Figure 4.4a-d: Deficiencies in access to natural green space – detailed insets for Bury and Haverhill Figure 7.1: Proposed green infrastructure network Figure 7.2: Green infrastructure opportunities: Bury St Edmunds Figure 7.3: Green infrastructure opportunities: Haverhill APPENDICES Appendix 1: Detailed policy context Appendix 2: BAP targets and key statutory protected nature conservation sites within St Edmundsbury Borough Appendix 3: Summary description of the place and character of St Edmundsbury Borough Appendix 4: Key historic landscape sites and features in St Edmundsbury Borough Appendix 5: Summary of Stakeholder Workshop 1 Appendix 6: Summary of Stakeholder Workshop 2 Appendix 7: Stakeholder workshop attendees Appendix 8: Glossary of terms Appendix 9: Existing GI initiatives in St Edmundsbury iii Acknowledgements Land Use Consultants’ team comprised of Kate Ahern, Andrew Tempany, Flora Wehl, Fiona Akins, Harriet White, Richard Gowing, Matt Parkhill and John Jeffcock (authors) and Graham Savage and Steven Cuthbert (GIS). The study was steered by a steering group comprising of Ian Poole, Jaki Fisher and Damien Parker (St Edmundsbury Borough Council), Rachel Penny (Natural England), Peter Holborn (Suffolk County Council), Simone Bullion (Suffolk Wildlife Trust), Neil Featherstone (Brecks Partnership). In addition consultation was undertaken with a range of stakeholders, whose contributions are gratefully acknowledged. However the views in the report are those of Land Use Consultants. iv 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Land Use Consultants was appointed by St Edmundsbury Borough Council (SEBC) in April 2009 to prepare a Green Infrastructure (GI) Strategy for the borough. The GI Strategy enables bold and imaginative consideration of GI in the borough, in response to proposed future growth primarily at Bury St. Edmunds and Haverhill, as well as key service centres. The Strategy will enhance existing GI and connections and provide a holistic consideration of GI deficiency, and likely future need in light of the growth within the borough, to inform priorities for new GI and the Local Development Framework. 1.2. Part 1 of this report (Context and Evidence Base) establishes the policy context for green infrastructure and the baseline in terms of environmental character and existing GI initiatives. It provides a GI need and demand analysis and summarises key opportunities to inform the vision and GI action plan for St Edmundsbury. It provides the context for Part 2: Vision, Strategy and Action Plan which sets out a vision