North Yorkshire County Council Regional Spatial Strategy: Settlement Study
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North Yorkshire County Council Regional Spatial Strategy: Settlement Study CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 3 2. THE BRIEF 4 3. REVIEW OF SETTLEMENT CLASSIFICATIONS 5 4. DEFINITION OF SETTLEMENTS 6 Settlement Identification 6 Settlement Definition 7 5. DATA REQUIREMENTS 8 Definition of Data Requirements 8 Data Sources 9 Data results 9 6. ANALYSIS 10 Data Analysis 10 Radar Charts 10 7. CLASSIFICATION OF SETTLEMENTS 12 Mapping the Settlement Classification 13 8. RESULTS OF THE CLASSIFICATION 20 9. FURTHER DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS 22 10. BIBLIOGRAPHY 23 Appendix 1: Members of the Reference Group 24 Appendix 2: Review of Current Practice 25 Appendix 3: Settlements included in the Study 28 Appendix 4: Database 31 Appendix 5: Data Sources 33 Appendix 6: Regional Averages used in Ranking Process 35 Appendix 7: Rankings 36 Appendix 8: Radar Charts 38 Appendix 9: Classification Criteria 41 1 North Yorkshire County Council Regional Spatial Strategy: Settlement Study PROJECT TEAM Simon Smales Malcolm Spittle Colin Bainbridge Chris Dickinson Andrea Lloyd Linda McKenzie Paula Rushby 2 North Yorkshire County Council Regional Spatial Strategy: Settlement Study 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Yorkshire and Humber Assembly are currently preparing Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) for Yorkshire and the Humber in line with the Government's proposals for reforming the development plan system and the guidance in draft PPS11. 1.2 In line with this guidance the Assembly published a Project Plan in January 2004 setting out the issues and principles that will underpin the preparation of RSS. The Plan identifies a number of key issues and topic areas that are likely to be addressed in the drafting of RSS, including strategic patterns of development. The need for RSS to include a coherent settlement strategy covering the whole region is specifically identified in the Plan. 1.3 In addressing this requirement the Assembly identified the lack of a settlement database in the region as a serious constraint to policy formulation. At the same time Yorkshire Forward was beginning to examine ways to develop its Renaissance Market Towns Programme. 1.4 These two factors resulted in North Yorkshire County Council being commissioned by the Assembly to undertake a Regional Settlement Study to establish an information base for the development of the settlement strategy in RSS and the future of the Renaissance Market Towns Programme. 1.5 This report sets out the methodology adopted in the preparation of the study, identifies a functional classification of settlements in the region and highlights areas where further work would contribute to the better understanding of their roles and relationships. 1.6 The report is supplemented by a CD. This includes the data collected, the relevant analyses and maps. It also provides for the data to be updated and extended and for further analysis as required. The CD also includes detailed instructions on its use. 3 North Yorkshire County Council Regional Spatial Strategy: Settlement Study 2. THE BRIEF 2.1 The brief for the County Council was issued jointly by the Assembly and Yorkshire Forward. It sets out the four aims of the project. These are: • to identify, map and collate key information for all settlements in the Yorkshire and Humberside region; • to develop criteria for the functional classification of settlements in the region, including the definition of market towns; • to develop and utilise critieria for prioritising the market towns to be included in the Market Towns Renaissance programme; and • to suggest how the information collected could be further analysed and applied (alongside that collated through Urban Capacity Studies and the Regional Employment Land Survey) to help develop the settlement strategy of the RSS 2.2 The brief highlighted the need for close links between the development of the regional settlement strategy and the work that contributed to this and the sub- regional studies being undertaken within the region; the Leeds City Region and the South Yorkshire Spatial Study. 2.3 The timetable for the study indicated that the work was to be completed by March 2004 2.4 The project was managed by a Reference Group which considered and advised on initial findings and progress reports. The Group included representatives of the Assembly, Yorkshire Forward, the Countryside Agency and local authority representatives of the four sub-regions (see Appendix 1). The Group also included links through its membership to the two sub-regional studies. 4 North Yorkshire County Council Regional Spatial Strategy: Settlement Study 3. REVIEW OF SETTLEMENT CLASSIFICATIONS 3.1 The initial stage of the study involved a review of the settlement databases and approaches to the functional classification of settlements developed elsewhere by national, regional and local organisations as part of the wider planning process. 3.2 In terms of the databases these demonstrated a broad similarity of approach with demography, service provision , accessibility, employment and the economy as recurring themes. Where differences from this pattern occurred they tended to reflect the specific purposes for which individual studies had been undertaken. In some instances the studies have also involved some form of scoring, ranking or weighting of factors. Again, these tended to be related to specific objectives of the studies. 3.3 It became clear at an early stage of this work that relatively little work has been undertaken on the functional classification of settlements. Most of the studies that have been undertaken have been for specific purposes related to policy development and this is reflected in both the way in which settlements have been classified and the data collected. 3.4 The most significant studies are briefly outlined in Appendix 2. This is not comprehensive, but represents the main approaches that have been adopted elsewhere at the national, regional and local levels. Further information on these and other studies are set out in the bibliography. 3.5 The project team has also considered other studies currently in progress elsewhere, including work being undertaken for ODPM, with a view to the links that could be established in terms of data and methodologies. 3.6 Best practice from other studies has been adopted where this has been relevant. 5 North Yorkshire County Council Regional Spatial Strategy: Settlement Study 4. DEFINITION OF SETTLEMENTS 4.1 In terms of settlements two issues needed to be addressed in the preparation of the study: • the identification of which settlements would be included in the study; and • how those settlements were to be defined in terms of their boundaries. Settlement Identification 4.2 The project brief requires the study to identify, map and collate key information for all settlements in the region. The scale of this exercise, linked to the timescale for the study suggested that there was a need to focus the work on a more clearly defined range of settlements. 4.3 The brief qualifies the reference to all settlements by indicating that, as a guide, this would most likely cover those with a population of above 3,000, although this was not an exclusionary figure. 4.4 The adoption of this lower threshold of 3,000 population was endorsed by the Reference Group and broadly supported in discussions with authorities from across the region. It has, however, been applied flexibly so that settlements below the 3,000 threshold have been included where the settlement was seen to have an important local role in providing services to a wider catchment area. Conversely settlements just above the threshold have been excluded where they perform no such function. 4.5 In identifying the settlements to be included in the study the project team have been advised by individual authorities, but have sought to ensure consistency of approach across the region. 4.6 In relation to the larger settlements in the region it was noted that: • the study is intended to inform the development of a settlement strategy which will provide the framework for decisions on the smaller towns in the region rather than the main regional centres. This tended to suggest a need to focus away from the largest settlements; • data collection and collation for the main regional centres would dominate the study at the expense of other settlements; and • there had been no support from local authorities for their inclusion in the study 4.7 It was therefore agreed with the Reference Group that the four largest centres in the region, Bradford, Hull, Leeds and Sheffield, would be excluded from the study. 4.8 A total of 233 settlements have been included in the study. These are listed in Appendix 3. 6 North Yorkshire County Council Regional Spatial Strategy: Settlement Study Settlement Definition 4.9 The second stage of the study involved the definition of settlements in terms of their boundaries. This represented an important part of the work since it provided the basis for detailed data collection. 4.10 Wherever possible the project team relied on guidance from local authorities. This was particularly important in South and West Yorkshire where the settlement pattern is complex and settlement boundaries are, in many instances, less clearly defined. 4.11 The definition of settlement boundaries enabled the collection of: • area-based data • address point data 4.12 In terms of area-based statistical data, the settlement boundaries represented a significant problem. Most published demographic, economic and social data is only available for wards, parishes, Census output areas or postcode sectors. This presented two problems: • the boundaries of these statistical areas do not necessarily equate to settlement boundaries - many smaller settlements, for example, represent only part of a larger ward, while in other instances wards include parts of more than one settlement; and • the boundaries of these areas change over time - many ward boundaries in the region were redrawn during 2003, and the 2001 Census output areas differ from the 1991 Census enumeration districts.