Welwyn Hatfield Local Development Framework Annual Monitoring Report 2006/2007 www.welhat.gov.uk Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council Local Development Framework Annual Monitoring Report 2006/2007 Published December 2007 C.J. Conway Chief Planning & Environmental Health Officer Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council Council Offices The Campus Welwyn Garden City Hertfordshire AL8 6AE Tel. 01707 357532 Fax. 01707 357285 Email: [email protected] If you would like to receive this document in a different language or format please call 01707 357000 or email [email protected] Welwyn Hatfield Annual Monitoring Report 2006/2007 Contents Executive Summary .............................................................................................iii Glossary of Terms .............................................................................................. iv Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 1 Progress of the Welwyn Hatfield Local Development Framework.............................................. 3 Sustainability Appraisal (SA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)........................... 8 Contextual Information........................................................................................................ 14 Sustainable Development ................................................................................................... 25 Green Belt and Settlement Pattern/Rural Areas .................................................................... 26 Resources ......................................................................................................................... 28 Movement ......................................................................................................................... 36 Housing............................................................................................................................. 41 Open Space ...................................................................................................................... 57 Community, Leisure and Tourism ........................................................................................ 59 Employment ...................................................................................................................... 60 Retailing and Town Centres ................................................................................................ 68 Hatfield Aerodrome ............................................................................................................ 74 Appendix A – Trajectory Summary Table.............................................................................. 75 Appendix B – Trajectory Housing Sites................................................................................. 76 Appendix C – Indicator Summary Table ............................................................................... 85 Contents│ ii Welwyn Hatfield Annual Monitoring Report 2006/2007 Executive Summary This is the third Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) produced by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council and comprises part of the Council’s emerging Local Development Framework. The Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) is one of the key elements of the Local Development Framework (LDF). Its main purpose is to assess the implementation of the Local Development Scheme (LDS); report on key milestones and the extent to which policies in Local Development Documents (LDDs) are being successfully implemented. This AMR reports on the period 1st April 2006 to 31st March 2007. Local Development Scheme – Key Milestones • Submission of the Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) on 10th May 2006. The SCI was adopted on the 24th January 2007. Contextual Characteristics • Welwyn Hatfield’s population was estimated to be 105,500 in 2006, an increase of 2,200 from the revised 2005 estimate of 103,300. • 5 Pennyfathers Lane, Welwyn has been added to the Statutory List of buildings of special architectural or historic interest, bringing Welwyn Hatfield’s total number of listed buildings to 417. Sustainable Development • 99.9 per cent of all new residential development completed in the monitoring year was located within 30 minutes travel time, by public transport, to a GP, primary school, secondary school, an area of employment and a major retail centre. 85.5 per cent was located within 30 minutes travel time by public transport to a hospital. Business Development • There has been a net increase of 28,069 m² employment (B use class) floorspace in Welwyn Hatfield during 2006/2007; 99 per cent of which was within designated employment areas. • 100 per cent of the land developed for industrial/commercial use in 2006/2007 was carried out on previously developed land. • Monitoring indicates a potential net increase in employment floorspace of 154,455 m² in the borough. Housing • 685 new dwellings were completed in Welwyn Hatfield in 2006/7, 45 per cent of which were affordable housing. • 99 per cent of residential completions in the monitoring year were on previously developed land (PDL). This exceeds the government target of 60 per cent residential completions on PDL for the fourth consecutive year. • 98 per cent of residential completions were built at a density of 30 dwellings per hectare or above. 61 per cent of these were completed at a density of 50 dwellings per hectare or above. Executive Summary │iii Welwyn Hatfield Annual Monitoring Report 2006/2007 Glossary of Terms Annual Monitoring Report (AMR): A report submitted to the Government by local planning authorities or regional planning bodies assessing progress with, and the effectiveness, of a Local Development Framework. Affordable Housing (including intermediate or sub-market housing): Includes social rented and intermediate housing provided to eligible households whose needs are not met by the market. Best Value: The way an authority measures, manages and improves its performance in line with Government targets. Bio-diversity: The whole variety of life encompassing all genetics, species and ecosystem variations, including plants and animals Community Strategy: Prepared by the Local Strategic Partnership it co-ordinates the actions of local public, private, voluntary and community sectors with the aim of improving the social, environmental and economic well-being of its area. Core Strategy: A Development Plan Document, forming part of the Local Development Framework for an area, that sets out the long-term spatial vision, and strategic policies and proposals to deliver the vision. A key diagram may be used to indicate broad locations for strategic developments. Chelmer Model: The Chelmer Population and Housing Model is a demographic regional housing model developed by the Population and Housing Research Group as part of a research project supported by the Housing Research Foundation. It is based on projections of population, households, dwellings and labour supply over the period 2001-2021. The projections examine a number of variants, relating to assumptions about levels of net migration, net additions of dwellings and economic activity rates (Anglia Ruskin University) Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO): An order issued by the government or a local authority to acquire land or buildings for public interest purposes. For example, for the construction of a major road or the redevelopment of certain brownfield sites Development Plan Documents: Statutory planning documents that together with the Regional Spatial Strategy and the Waste and Minerals Development Framework will form the development plan for Welwyn Hatfield. DPDs are subject to independent examination. DPDs can include a Core Strategy, Site Specific Allocations of land and Area Action Plans. Other DPDs including generic Development Control Policies can be produced. Employment Land Availability Survey (ELA): A survey of all outstanding employment based planning permissions in order to assess the status of each development. Undertaken annually in April. Freedom of Information Act (2000): provides the public with a general right of access to information held by public authorities. GO East: Government Office for the East of England, which covers Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Gross Domestic Product (GDP): is a key indicator of the state of the whole economy, In the UK, three theoretical approaches are used to estimate GDP: ‘production’, ‘income’ and ‘expenditure’. iv │Glossary of Terms Welwyn Hatfield Annual Monitoring Report 2006/2007 Gross Value Added (GVA): measures the contribution to the economy of each individual producer, industry or sector in the United Kingdom. Housing Trajectory: The means of showing past and future housing performance by identifying the predicted provision of housing over the lifespan of the local development framework: Indices of Deprivation 2004 (IMD): The IMD 2004 is a measure of multiple deprivation at small area level. The IMD is constructed from seven domains, with each of the domains measuring a separate aspect of deprivation. Various statistical techniques have been used to combine the domain indices into a single index of multiple deprivation which gives a score and a rank for each of the 32,482 Super Output Areas in England. Local Development Document: the collective term used in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act for Development Plan Documents, Supplementary Planning Documents and other LDF documents such as the Statement of Community