Braintree District Council CORE STRATEGY Regulation 25 Issues and Options Paper Strategic Environmental Assessment and Sustainability Appraisal Environment Report Annex 1 Baseline Information Prepared for Braintree District Council by Essex County Council April 2007 CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 3 2. BASELINE INFORMATION 5 2A Location 5 2B Population 7 2C Transport and Accessibility 11 2D Housing 17 2E Employment and Education 27 2F Deprivation 35 2G Cultural Heritage and Material assets 43 2H Biodiversity 51 2I Air 79 2J Water 83 2K Soil 95 3. LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Map of Divisions of Braintree 5 Figure 2 Map of District of Braintree 5 Figure 3 Age Profile Breakdown 7 Figure 4 Braintree Population Pyramid 8 Figure 5 Total population projections for Braintree 9 Figure 6 Household Composition 10 Figure 7 Braintree District Car Ownership 11 Figure 8 Essex Car Ownership 12 Figure 9 Travel to Work Patterns in the District and Essex 12 Figure 10 Map to Show Travel to Work Outflows 13 Figure 11 Map to Show Travel to Work Inflows 14 Figure 12 Travel to Work Methods for the Residential Population of Braintree District 14 Figure 13 Transport and Access 15 Figure 14 Form and age of the housing stock owned by the Local Authority 17 Figure 15 Braintree household statistics 17 Figure 16 Predicted annual housing completions 18 Figure 17 Ratio of Affordable Housing Completions to Total Housing Completions. 19 Figure 18 Average house prices and sales 2004 20 Figure 19 Percentage of sales by housing type in Braintree District 2004 20 Figure 20 Income thresholds to buy 20 Figure 21 Total Number of Homelessness Decisions 22 Figure 22 Total Number of Acceptances as Eligible, Homeless and in Priority Need 22 Figure 23 Graph to Show Total Number of Decisions and Acceptances of Homeless 23 Applications Figure 24 Repair of existing stock 2002 24 Figure 25 Ownership and repair of existing stock 2002 24 Figure 26 Dwelling Stock by Tenure and Condition 25 Figure 27 Percentage of Local Authority Dwellings that Fall Below the ‘Decent Homes 25 Standard’ Figure 28 Employment Status of Braintree Residents 27 Figure 29 Number of businesses by employee size 28 Figure 30 Proportion of Employees in Different Industry Classes 28 Figure 31 Comparison of Average Weekly Earnings in Braintree District against Regional 29 and National Wages Figure 32 Map Comparing Average Weekly Earnings in the Eastern Region 29 Figure 33 Claimant numbers in Braintree 30 Figure 34 Benefits and income deprivation 30 Figure 35 GCSE or Equivalent Qualifications Achieved By All Pupils for the Year 2004 31 Figure 36 GCSE or Equivalent Qualifications Achieved By Male Pupils for the Year 2004 31 Figure 37 GCSE or Equivalent Qualifications Achieved By Female 32 Pupils for the Year 2004 Figure 38 Braintree economic activity by qualification level 33 Figure 39 Education statistics in the District 33 Figure 40 Barriers to learning for employed and unemployed in Essex 34 Figure 41 Essex Districts Ranking On ID2004 Measures 35 Figure 42 Indices of Deprivation Essex 36 Figure 43 Distances to key services of new residential developments 36 Figure 44 Braintree District Rank of Health Deprivation and Disability 38 Figure 45 Braintree District Years of Potential Life Lost 39 Figure 46 Criminal activity and perceptions of crime 40 Figure 47 Health of the residents of Braintree 41 Figure 48 Mortality rates, life expectancy and teenage conception rates 41 Figure 49 The listed building composition for the District of Braintree 43 Figure 50 Illustrates the Number of Buildings at Risk in 2004, 2005, and 2006 43 Figure 51 Illustrates the Total Number of Listed Buildings Removed from the Risk Register 44 Figure 52 Braintree District Heritage Designations 46 Figure 53 Listed Buildings in Braintree District 47 Figure 54 Illustrates the Name of the Conservation Area and the Date of Designation and/or 47 Last Amendment Figure 55 Residents perceptions of community activities 49 Figure 56 Braintree District SSSIs 51 Figure 57 Condition of SSSIs in Braintree District in 2005 53 Figure 58 Woodland within Braintree District 54 Figure 59 Braintree District County Wildlife Sites 55 Figure 60 Habitat Types of Braintree County Wildlife Sites 56 Figure 61 Braintree District LNRs 57 Figure 62 Landscape Character Areas within Braintree District 60 Figure 63 Landscape sensitivity level to developments/changes in Braintree District 61 Figure 64 Special Landscape Areas within Braintree District 62 Figure 65 The Species Native within Braintree District Council outlined in the Biodiversity 64 Action Plan, the Current Status, Factors Causing Loss or Decline in the Species and Relevant Policy Actions to Protect and Enhance the Species Figure 66 The Habitats Native within Braintree District Council outlined in the Biodiversity 72 Action Plan, the Current Status, Factors Causing Loss or Decline in the Species and Relevant Policy Actions that may Protect and Enhance the Species Figure 67 Potentially Significant Junctions 1 and 2 within Braintree District 79 Figure 68 Potentially Significant Junction 3 within Braintree District 80 Figure 69 Potentially Significant Junctions 4 and 5 within Braintree District 81 Figure 70 Main Rivers within Braintree District 84 Figure 71 Aquifers within Essex 85 Figure 72 Leakage rates for Anglian Water supply area 86 Figure 73 Leakage rates for Northumbrian South Supply Area 86 Figure 74 Average Domestic Water Consumption in Essex 87 Figure 75 High Flood Risk Areas within Braintree District 88 Figure 76 Residential Properties Flooded from Main Rivers, October 2001. 88 Figure 77 River Ecosystem Percentage Compliancy Length 89 Figure 78 River Stretches Failing River Ecosystem Target in Braintree District 2003 - 2005 90 Figure 79 Braintree District Chemical GQA 1990 - 2005 91 Figure 80 Chemistry General Quality Assessments for Braintree District 1990-2005 91 Figure 81 Comparison between Chemical GQA at the Regional, County and District Level 92 2007 Figure 82 Chemistry GQA Comparison between East of England, Essex and Braintree 92 District 2005 Figure 83 Geological Stratigraphy of Essex 95 Figure 84 Structural Cross Section of Essex 96 Figure 85 Braintree District Agricultural Land Classification 98 2 1. INTRODUCTION In July 2006 Essex County Council (ECC) was commissioned by Braintree District Council to undertake a Sustainability Appraisal (incorporating the requirements of the Strategic Environmental Assessment directive) for Braintree’s Core Strategy (Braintree District Council, 2006). This document is the Annex 1 of the Environmental Report for the Sustainability Appraisal (SA) and the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the Braintree District Council Core Strategy Regulation 25 Issues and Options Paper. The SEA Directive requires an analysis of the “relevant aspects of the current state of the environment and the likely evolution thereof without implementation of the plan” (Annex 1b) and “the environmental characteristics of areas likely to be significantly affected” (Annex 1c). The baseline information will form the basis for predicting and monitoring the effects of the adoption of the Braintree District Council Core Strategy. The baseline data allows sustainability issues to be identified and aids the formulation of appropriate mitigation measures and/or proposals for suitable alternatives. The baseline data for the SA/SEA of the Braintree District Council Core Strategy includes existing environmental and sustainability information from a range of sources, including national government, agency websites, the 2001 Census, Braintree District Council and Essex County Council. The information the baseline data aims to highlight is; • the latest data for Braintree District Council; • comparators: regional or national level data against which the status of Braintree District may be evaluated; • identified targets; • established trends; and • Environmental/sustainability issues. The remainder of this Annex describes social, economic and environmental factors relevant to the preparation of the Braintree District Council Core Strategy. There is a continuous programme of updating and extending the Baseline information. A current focus of that programme is to ensure that relevant trend data is collected and analysed for a full range of topics. Information and analysis on the following topics is currently being undertaken but is not available for inclusion in this Environmental Report for this stage of the Braintree Core Strategy DPD; • Candidate Special Areas of Conservation, • Special Protection Areas for Birds • Biodiversity Action Plan Broad Habitats and geological sites • Background trends on air quality, water resources, water quality and climate change and the implications for environmental assets. • Status of habitats and species • Abundance and/or extent of habitats and species • Distribution of habitats and species • Condition of habitats and species • Fragmentation of habitats; • Loss of infrastructure to support agriculture, woodland management and the rural economy; • Low flows in rivers during summer months; • Invasive non-native species; • Air and water pollution (surface and groundwater); • Effects of climate change. • Priority species • Sites of geological significance (RIGs) 3 4 2A - LOCATION Braintree is a largely rural district and is the second largest in Essex, covering 612 square kilometres with over half of the population living in one of the three main towns of Braintree, Halstead and Witham. Braintree District is conveniently placed along the A12 and A120 ‘investment corridors’