Cheriton Shepway Ward Profile May 2015 New Romney New Romney -2- New Romney Foreword .......................................................................................................5 Brief introduction to area ...........................................................................6 Map of area ..................................................................................................7 Demographics ..............................................................................................8 Local economy ..............................................................................................12 Education and skills ....................................................................................22 Health & wellbeing ......................................................................................26 Housing .........................................................................................................37 Neighbourhood/ community ....................................................................40 Planning and development .......................................................................44 Physical Assets ............................................................................................ 45 Arts and culture ...........................................................................................52 Crime .............................................................................................................55 Appendix 1 ................................................................................................... 56 Endnotes/ websites .....................................................................................60 -3- New Romney -4- New Romney Foreword Dear Reader One of Shepway District Council’s priorities is to and local community facilities and amenities. This provide opportunities for elected members and local information is grouped by themes in order to make it residents to work together to influence decisions as easy as possible to find the information you want. and shape their local community. We know how important good information is in helping people The information on community assets for this profile to understand local issues, identify service need was gathered by working in collaboration with and find ways to improve local services and partners and by engaging with local community and amenities. That is why I am proud to present the voluntary groups. I would like to personally thank ward profile for the new electoral ward of New everyone who has contributed to this document. Romney, which I hope you will find an interesting The statistical information was primarily drawn from and informative read. the 2011 Census, unless otherwise stated. Other sources include: The purpose of the ward profile is to: • 2013 Midyear population estimates from • Provide a shared resource for people the Office of National Statistics1 wanting to find out about their local • Acorn Customer Insight Profiler2 community; • Kent and Medway Public Health • Support elected members with their Observatory3 community role as civic leaders and • Kent County Council Research and community champions; Intelligence Team4 • Provide elected members with useful information about their new ward; Some of the data within this profiler was specially • Assist elected members with identifying commissioned by Shepway District Council so priorities that could potentially be included it may not be publically available elsewhere in in their ward plan; the displayed format. The data will evolve and • Provide a resource that is made publically expand as government agencies recalibrate their available for wider use by the public and data publishing to the new ward boundaries voluntary / community groups (e.g. to within Shepway. support funding bids). We will develop our ward profiles over time and we Our intention is for ward profiles to be used as would really appreciate your feedback on this ward widely as possible and to be made available to profile so we can make sure it is as up-to-date and Councillors, council officers, Town and Parish relevant as possible. Please provide any feedback to Councils, voluntary and community groups, as [email protected]. well as the general public on the council website www.shepway.gov.uk This ward profile contains a variety of information Alistair Stewart on demographics (e.g. population, deprivation); Chief Executive population outcomes; the level of service provision -5- New Romney New Romney New Romney is a small town on the Romney Marsh The storm that hit the southern coast of England that has been established for over 1,200 years. The in 1287 changed the coastline and the landscape ward of New Romney is made up of New Romney of Romney Marsh forever. New Romney, still an parish, which had previously been split into two important harbour at the time became surrounded wards, New Romney Town and New Romney by land and was suddenly located a mile from the Coast. Romney Marsh has had a long and complex sea10. The floods in the 12th & 13th century halted history of formation, which has given rise to variable the spread of the population, and the Black Death geological deposits across its area. During the Iron in 1349 brought demand for new land to an end. Age, Roman & Early Anglo Saxon periods (700BC Between the 14th and 17th century salt-marshes to c.600AD) a lot of Romney Marsh Proper was were reclaimed for sheep pasture, so that by 1700 underwater. Old Romney was known only as the map of Romney Marsh was similar to that of Romney and was an island off the coast. By 100AD today11. From the early 16th century the Romney long-shore drift had caused a large shingle and sand Marshes and New Romney were characterized by bank to build up and enclose a lagoon that was open a widespread pastoral economy of sheep rearing, to the sea near Hythe. During the 6th & 7th Century becoming an integral part of the English woolen sea levels were rising, rivers were depositing industry12. Today the town of New Romney is full sediment, and shingle was drifting, all of which of historic buildings, which hark back to its rich continuously changed the coastline of the marshes5. heritage. It has a parade of small shops along its High Street, a petrol station and a supermarket, New Romney is a late Anglo-Saxon (850-1066AD) as well as a primary school and a secondary settlement, which grew into a small trading town6. school. The town is surrounded by a sprawl of By the 8th century the coastline had changed mainly residential dwellings extending down to dramatically. Romney became Old Romney and the the communities of Littlestone and Greatstone on town of New Romney became a prominent port the coast, which are also part of the ward. These on the new harbour that had formed. In 1066AD dwellings are interspersed with business premises, it was sacked by a detachment of William the many of which are residential and care homes. The Conqueror’s forces for inflicting heavy losses on a place names of Greatstone and Littlestone came group of William’s soldiers who had tried to land about in the 19th century as a result of the headland at New Romney before moving onto Pevensey 7. A at that time which has since eroded. Many residents Royal Charter of 1155AD names New Romney as use Ashford as their main commercial area. one of the five original Cinque Ports (others were Dover, Sandwich, Hythe & Hastings)8. They were originally formed for military and trade purposes and were at the height of their influence from 1150 to 1350AD. New Romney and Hythe were important suppliers of salt to London9, but in the latter part of the thirteenth century a series of severe storms weakened the coastal defences of Romney Marsh. -6- New Romney -7- New Romney Demographics The 2013 midyear population estimates published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) gives the total population of the New Romney Ward as 7,120, with 3,480 males and 3,640 females. The diagrams below show that compared to the population of Kent as a whole and that of Shepway there is a much higher proportion of 50 to 85+ year olds living in this ward. The population within this ward has a significantly lower proportion of people aged from 0 to 44 yrs old. -8- New Romney Marital status and living arrangements More than half (52%) of New Romney residents aged over 16 are married, with a further 10% cohabiting. 0.5% are in a same-sex civil partnership or co-habiting relationship. 16% are single, having never married, 9.4% divorced (which is above the Kent average) and 5.7% widowed. Married 3,004 Cohabiting 616 Same-sex civil partnership or cohabiting 26 Single (never married) 1,083 Married or in civil partnership 69 Separated (but still legally married) 97 Divorced 371 Widowed 488 New Romney has proportionally more people (than Shepway or Kent) who are are single or divorced. -9- New Romney Ethnicity New Romney has a higher percentage of people of English/Welsh/ Scottish/ Northern Irish ethnicity than Shepway or Kent as a whole. As a result, it is underrepresented in almost all other ethnic groups identified in the census data, when compared across Shepway and Kent. New Romney Shepway Kent English/ Welsh/ Scottish/ NI 6,687 95.6% 90.8% 89.1% Irish 45 0.6% 0.7% 0.7% Gypsy or Irish Traveller 9 0.1% 0.2% 0.3% Other White 91 1.3% 3.0% 3.6% White and Black Caribbean 19 0.3% 0.4% 0.4% White and Black African 8 0.1% 0.1% 0.2% White and Asian 21 0.3% 0.4% 0.5% Other Mixed 9 0.1% 0.3% 0.4% Indian 19 0.3% 0.4% 1.2% Pakistani 21 0.3% 0.1% 0.2%