Newcastle City Council and Gateshead Council Green Infrastructure Study - Evidence Base Final Report January 2011 Copyright and Non-Disclosure Notice The contents and layout of this report are subject to copyright owned by Entec (© Entec UK Limited 2011) save to the extent that copyright has been legally assigned by us to another party or is used by Entec under licence. To the extent that we own the copyright in this report, it may not be copied or used without our prior written agreement for any purpose other than the purpose indicated in this report. The methodology (if any) contained in this report is provided to you in confidence and must not be disclosed or copied to third parties without the prior written agreement of Entec. Disclosure of that information may constitute an actionable breach of confidence or may otherwise prejudice our commercial interests. 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Document Revisions No. Details Date 1 Draft Nov 2009 2 Draft Feb 2010 3 Draft April 2010 4 Final Draft July 2010 5 Final Report January 2011 © Entec UK Limited Page ii January 2011 © Entec UK Limited Page iv January 2011 Contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1 The Study 1 1.2 The Study Area 2 1.3 Neighbouring Areas 4 1.4 Methodology and Structure 5 2. GI Functions and Benefits 9 2.1 GI Definitions 9 2.2 GI Functions 9 2.3 GI Benefits 10 2.4 Setting the Policy Context for Green Infrastructure 12 2.5 Strategic Links with Neighbouring Authorities 14 3. The Planning and Development Context 19 3.1 Planning Policy Context 19 3.2 The Regeneration and Development Context 25 3.3 Conclusions 37 4. The Environmental and Socio-Economic Context 39 4.1 Landscape 39 4.2 Ecology and Biodiversity 49 4.3 Land Classification 69 4.4 Recreation and Accessible Green Space 70 4.5 Historic Environment 95 4.6 Contamination Issues 101 4.7 Population 106 4.8 The Local Economy 107 4.9 Deprivation 109 © Entec UK Limited Page v January 2011 4.10 Health 110 4.11 Climate Change, Air Quality, Flooding and Water Quality 115 5. The Green Infrastructure Resource Network 131 5.1 Introduction 131 5.2 Key Issues 131 5.3 Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Challenges for GI Development 136 5.4 Gaps in Provision 139 5.5 Stage Two 141 Table 1.1 Characteristics of Study Area 3 Table 1.2 Methodology 6 Table 2.1 Benefits of GI 11 Table 2.2 Relevant GI Documents 13 Table 2.3 Strategic Green Infrastructure Links 15 Table 3.1 Relevant Development Focused Strategies 26 Table 3.2 Housing Growth Areas 27 Table 3.3 Area Action Plans 30 Table 3.4 Other Regeneration Activity 32 Table 4.1 Landscape Elements 39 Table 4.2 Landscape/Townscape Assets 43 Table 4.3 Condition Assessment for SSSIs located in Newcastle and Gateshead 50 Table 4.4 Newcastle Standards for Parks and Gardens 71 Table 4.5 Gateshead’s Standards for Parks and Gardens 72 Table 4.6 Green Flag Sites 72 Table 4.7 Newcastle’s Standards for Amenity Green space 74 Table 4.8 Gateshead’s Standards for Amenity Green space 74 Table 4.9 Grass Pitch Deficiencies in Newcastle 80 Table 4.10 Gateshead’s Standards for Play Areas 82 Table 4.11 A Survey of Allotment Waiting Lists in England, June 2009 88 Table 4.12 Allotment Demand Information Northumberland and Tyne and Wear, 88 Table 4.13 Allotment Distribution in Newcastle 90 Table 4.14 Allotment Demand in Newcastle 90 Table 4.15 Historic Designations 96 Table 4.16 Features ‘At Risk’ 99 Table 4.17 Industrial Activities and Potential Contaminants within GPAs in Tyne Valley Area 104 Table 4.18 Industrial Activities within GPAs in Birtley, Chopwell and the Kenton, Newbiggin Hall and Blakelaw Areas. 105 Table 4.19 Main Employment Sectors 108 Table 4.20 10% Most Deprived Super Output Areas (generalised to ward level and including wards substantially within the 10% category) 110 Table 4.21 Summary of Flood Risk Information from the Newcastle Strategic Flood Risk Assessment 121 Table 4.22 Summary of Flood Risk Information from the Gateshead Strategic Flood Risk Assessment 122 Table 4.23 RBMP Current Ecological and Chemical Water Quality 128 Figure 1.1 NewcastleGateshead in Context Page 5 Figure 3.1 Joint Core Strategy Themes Page 24 Figure 3.2 Planning & Regeneration After Page 38 Figure 4.1 Landscape After Page 130 Figure 4.2a Biodiversity After Page 130 Figure 4.2b Wildlife Corridor Links After Page 130 Figure 4.7 Public Open Space After Page 130 Figure 4.8 Key Roads and Routes After Page 130 Figure 4.9 Flood Risk After Page 130 © Entec UK Limited Page vi January 2011 Figure 5.1 Site Quality Page 134 Figure 5.2 Quality of Types of Open Space Provision Page 135 Appendix A PRoW and Recreational Routes Appendix B Newcastle Phase 1 Habitat Updates Appendix B1 Protected Species Legislation Appendix B2 Figure B1 Study Area and Site Location Plan Appendix B3 Phase 1 Habitat Survey Maps Appendix C Land Classification Appendix D Play Area Audit (Gateshead) Appendix E Indicative Costs Appendix F Allotment Demand (Gateshead) Appendix G Accessible Natural Greenspace Appendix H Recreation Trends and the Alignment of Standards Appendix I Planning Context Appendix J Green Infrastructure Context Appendix K Development Context Appendix L Confidential Ecology Data Appendix M River Tyne Study Appendix N Developer Contributions Appendix O Attendees and Notes of the Visioning Workshop Appendix P Historic Environment/Cultural Heritage Map Appendix Q Deprivation Maps © Entec UK Limited Page vii January 2011 © Entec UK Limited Page viii January 2011 1. Introduction 1.1 The Study 1.1.1 Newcastle City Council and Gateshead Council jointly commissioned Entec UK Ltd (Entec) in August 2009 to prepare a Green Infrastructure Strategy with accompanying Green Infrastructure Evidence Base for the two local authority areas. 1.1.2 This study forms the first part of a Green Infrastructure Strategy and provides an evidence base to support the NewcastleGateshead Joint Core Strategy. It will also aid the Bridging NewcastleGateshead’s (BNG) Partnership Renewal and Growth Agenda, in particular the delivery of NewcastleGateshead’s Housing Growth Point areas. The study will identify the network of multifunctional green space and other relevant land and watercourses, which support the activity, health and well being of local people and wildlife across NewcastleGateshead. The study will identify green infrastructure deficiencies that can be addressed through future growth whilst looking at opportunities for conservation and enhancement in provision of existing sites. Links between green space provision are to be investigated both within and across Council boundaries, whilst the opportunities offered by the River Tyne as a key recreational and wildlife corridor shared by both authorities are to be maximised. 1.1.3 A vision for Green Infrastructure in Newcastle and Gateshead was developed by the Authorities before the study commenced and is presented below: NewcastleGateshead’s green infrastructure is the network of multi-functional green and undeveloped land, urban and rural, which supports the activity, health and well being of local people and wildlife. 1.1.4 The Vision also states the aims of the Green Infrastructure Strategy: The Green Infrastructure Strategy is intended to achieve better quality, more effective functioning and greater diversity of our green infrastructure. This will contribute to achieving sustainable communities and regeneration, promote better health and a better quality of life for all, mitigate the effects of climate change, enhance biodiversity and preserve historic landscapes. A high quality provision and comprehensive framework of geographically inter-connected green infrastructure will offer ease of movement to people and wildlife and provide many different opportunities for outdoor activity. It will also provide an attractive and healthy setting for homes, schools, workplaces and the rest of the built environment, thereby improving the well being of everyone, even when they are not directly using it. Green infrastructure also provides a valuable biodiversity resource; while inter-connections between habitats may enable movement of species in response to climate change. 1.1.5 In order to support the achievement of the vision a number of objectives were developed for the Green Infrastructure (GI) Strategy. These are: identifying a network of multifunctional green and other relevant land and watercourses, which supports the activity, health and well being of local people and wildlife; © Entec UK Limited Page 1 January 2011 identifying deficiencies that can be addressed through the growth programme and opportunities for improvement of provision, with a costed programme of actions to enable delivery; creating a focus on the River Tyne as a key recreational and wildlife corridor of shared significance for NewcastleGateshead; providing