EB605 Lee Valley White Water Centre Economic Development Study Lee Valley Legacy Board June 2011 EB605 Economic Development Study Lee Valley Legacy Board 14 June 2011 12545/MS/JR FINAL REPORT Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners 14 Regent's Wharf All Saints Street London N1 9RL nlpplanning.com EB605 © Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners Ltd 2010. Trading as Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners. All Rights Reserved. Registered Office: 14 Regent's Wharf All Saints Street London N1 9RL All plans within this document produced by NLP are based upon Ordnance Survey mapping with the permission of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. © Crown Copyright reserved. Licence number AL50684A EB605 Lee Valley White Water Centre: Economic Development Study Contents Executive Summary 1 1.0 Introduction 11 2.0 The Lee Valley White Water Centre & the Surrounding Area 15 3.0 Socio-economic Context 23 4.0 Review of Other White Water Centres 33 5.0 Development Opportunities and Constraints 45 6.0 Market Appraisal 49 7.0 Economic Impacts 67 8.0 Infrastructure Requirements 77 9.0 Spatial Development Framework 91 10.0 Strategies and Interventions 105 11.0 Overall Conclusions and Recommendations 117 1426270v5 EB605 EB605 Lee Valley White Water Centre: Economic Development Study Figures3 Figure 1.1 Study Methodology 12 Figure 2.1 The Lee Valley White Water Centre Site 15 Figure 2.2 LVWWC and surrounding wards 17 Figure 3.1 Change in Employee Jobs 2003-8 24 Figure 3.2 Proportion of Employee Jobs by Sector, 2008 25 Figure 3.3 Change in Employee Jobs by Sector, 2003-8 25 Figure 3.4 Stock and change in the number of enterprises 26 Figure 3.5 Claimant Unemployment as a proportion of the working-age population 27 Figure 3.6 Skill levels of the working-age population 28 Figure 3.7 Sought Occupation of the Claimant Unemployed 28 Figure 3.8 Median Weekly Gross Wages for Full-time Workers 29 Figure 3.9 Deprivation in the area surrounding the LVWWC 30 Figure 3.10 Ward Commuting Flows 31 Figure 4.1 Cergy White Water Centre & Leisure Centre, Paris 38 Figure 6.1 Index of Total Visits to Attractions in England 50 Figure 7.1 Forecast retail and leisure spending 67 Figure 9.1 Cross Relationship of Activities and Uses 93 Tables3 Table 2.1 Accommodation within 4 km of the LVWWC 19 Table 3.1 Economic Activity Rates 27 Table 6.1 Visitor Market Segment for Potential Leisure Facilities 59 Table 6.2 Size of visitor market segments 60 Table 6.3 Potential Facilities 64 Table 7.1 Average GDP & Leisure/Retail Volume Growth per head 2011-15 68 Table 7.2 Likely Deliverability of Different Facilities under Different Economic/Spending Scenarios 71 Table 7.3 Potential Visitor & Employment Impacts by Potential Facility 72 Table 7.4 Employment growth by growth scenario (Cumulative) 73 Table 7.5 Indicative Job Breakdown by Status of Job (Year 10+) 73 Table 7.6 Cumulative Job Levels by Occupation Group 74 Table 8.1 Car Parking Provision in the Local Area 79 Table 8.2 Buses passing the LVWWC 80 Table 8.3 Job types at the LVWWC 83 1426270v5 EB605 Lee Valley White Water Centre: Economic Development Study Table 9.1 Activity Zone Characteristics 92 Table 9.2 New Facility Options by Activity Zone and Timescale 94 Table 10.1 Potential Intervention Requirements 109 P2 1426270v5 EB605 Lee Valley White Water Centre: Economic Development Study Appendices1 Appendix 1 List of Consultees Appendix 2 Summary of Relevant Strategies and Policy Documents Appendix 3 Implementation Case Studies 1426270v5 EB605 EB605 Lee Valley White Water Centre: Economic Development Study Executive Summary This study assesses the potential of the Lee Valley White Water Centre (LVWWC) to strengthen the leisure offer of the Lee Valley Regional Park through complementary leisure, tourism or business developments on sites within the Park and the adjoining area, and to regenerate the area around the centre. It also identifies how the economic benefits of the LVWWC to the surrounding area can be maximised. The LVWWC is a world class sporting facility developed for the London 2012 Olympic Games and the best of its type within the UK and one of the best in the world. It provides an important legacy facility to serve local and national sporting needs and has potential to form a catalyst for other development around it. Originally planned to attract 72,000 visitors annually, its early operation has attracted many more visitors than expected, suggesting its long term potential may be greater. The Surrounding Area The LVWWC site benefits from a location on the edge of the major population catchment of Greater London with 7.6 million residents, with very good road accessibility via the M25 motorway and the A10, and reasonable access by public transport. The surrounding area already contains significant outdoor recreational facilities, including the Lee Valley Country Park with 1.5 million visitors annually and Epping Forest with up to 4 million visitors. It is also important to note that there is no established centre within the Greater London area offering a wide range of outdoor sports/leisure activities. There are also some established visitor attractions near the LVWWC site which can be built on, including the Norman Waltham Abbey and historic market town and the Royal Gunpowder Mills heritage and events centre, along with a reasonable range of hotel accommodation. While the two nearby town centres - Waltham Abbey and Waltham Cross - currently contain only a modest amount of retail provision and commercial leisure uses, there are some leisure development opportunities close to the LVWWC site. Although the area around it has not attracted significant leisure development in the past, the LVWWC is a world class facility which can raise the area’s profile while there are opportunities to build on established visitor attractions in the area and the services in nearby town centres. Lessons from Established Centres From a review of over 30 white water centres in the UK and overseas, only a few have developed into wider visitor destinations with a wide range of leisure/sports activities. Those that have done so focus on other outdoor and ‘adrenaline’ activities provided as a package to create a full day or weekend of activity for individuals, groups and corporate users, along with providing a venue for events. 1426270v5 P1 EB605 Lee Valley White Water Centre: Economic Development Study This experience suggests that white water centres, and other comparable participatory sports attractions, do not by themselves tend to attract significant other leisure or visitor facilities around them, or develop organically into wider visitor destinations. Demand for sport/leisure activities often needs to be created by providing facilities. This indicates that a pro-active approach, strong marketing and other interventions will be needed if the LVWWC site is to develop into a wider leisure destination that can bring significant economic benefits. To illustrate what is achievable, there are several examples of leisure parks, with a white water centre at their heart (e.g. Cergy near Paris and the US National White Water Centre in North Carolina) which have successfully developed into sizeable visitor destinations focused on outdoor recreation with between 400,000 and 1.5 million visitors annually, and supporting several hundred jobs. In these cases, activities, marketing and development are coordinated by a single central organisation. Opportunities & Constraints There are significant opportunities for further leisure development in the area around the LVWWC provided planning and environmental constraints can be overcome and market perceptions improved. The main opportunities arise from proximity to the major population catchment of Greater London, the increased profile of the area arising from the Olympic LVWWC facility and the availability of some development land and established visitor attractions close to the centre. There are also some potential constraints on further leisure development on the LVWWC site arising from its Green Belt designation, from flood risk on parts of the site and low levels of parking provision. Adjoining land within the Lee Valley Park and the nearby Gunpowder Mills site also has significant constraints from environmental protection designations, flood risk, Scheduled Ancient Monuments and high electricity pylons. This does not necessarily mean that desirable forms of leisure development will be restricted. It will be more a case of taking account of constraints and ensuring that appropriate forms of development are directed towards the most suitable sites for them, including sites nearby with fewer restrictions. The degree of development risk arising from planning and environmental factors would also need to taken into account when identifying facilities that could be promoted to the market. Market Potential To attract new investment by operators/developers and enable certain other types of new facilities to emerge on the LVVWC site or nearby, visitor numbers to the area would need to be significantly increased by adding a bigger attraction, or a combination of other visitor attractions. The LVWWC can act as a catalyst for further development when combined with pro-active measures to bring other sports/leisure facilities to the site. Such additional attractions and P2 1426270v5 EB605 Lee Valley White Water Centre: Economic Development Study activities will have the greatest impact where they have some form of leisure activity connection to the LVWWC. Developments should therefore be active, adrenaline-type facilities rather than ones relating to passive enjoyment. In this way, the collection of activities close to each other could be marketed under a theme. This new Lee Valley Park ‘activity zone’ could develop its own identity and become a destination in its own right, perhaps an adrenaline sports park for London. Whilst the activities and developments should mainly be ‘active’ facilities, they can also be developed to appeal to a range of age groups and levels of excitement.