Braintree District Ward Profiles Witham Central Ward Revised May 2021 1 2 Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................... 4 About Witham Central Ward ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Local Governance .............................................................................................................................................................. 5 Community Facilities ......................................................................................................................................................... 5 Major Businesses, Industrial Estates & Commercial Developments ................................................................................ 5 Development Sites ............................................................................................................. 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People ............................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Population ..................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Age ................................................................................................................................................................................ 7 Health ............................................................................................................................................................................ 8 Limiting long-term illness .......................................................................................................................................... 8 Level of unpaid care provided ................................................................................................................................... 8 Life Expectancy .......................................................................................................................................................... 9 Highest level of qualification......................................................................................................................................... 9 Ethnicity ...................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Religion........................................................................................................................................................................ 11 Household composition .............................................................................................................................................. 11 Place ................................................................................................................................................................................ 12 Housing tenure ............................................................................................................................................................ 12 Household size ............................................................................................................................................................ 13 Social housing stock .................................................................................................................................................... 14 Car & van ownership ................................................................................................................................................... 14 Prosperity ........................................................................................................................................................................ 15 Economic activity ........................................................................................................................................................ 15 Employment type ........................................................................................................................................................ 15 Employment sectors ................................................................................................................................................... 15 3 Braintree District Ward Profiles Snapshot: February 2019 Witham Central Ward Introduction This profile explores the demographic, social and economic characteristics of Witham Central Ward and is largely based on data drawn from the 2011 Census. This profile is a snapshot, and is intended to support an understanding of Braintree District’s Ward characteristics. These ward profiles represent the new ward boundaries introduced in the Braintree District by the Electoral Commission from May 2015. This has meant that it has not been possible to directly source data from the 2011 Census for these new Wards, as they didn’t exist when the Census was completed. Data for the rural Wards has been produced by adding up the Census data at a Parish level to make up the new Ward areas. For the urban Wards, data has been used from Community Insight reports provided by Greenfields. This was necessary as the urban Wards are not made up of Parishes, meaning Census Parish data couldn’t simply be added 4 together to find the figures for these new areas. A comparison with the 2001 Census data has also not been possible for these urban areas. If you have any questions regarding the content of this document please contact Tracey Headford in the Business Improvement Team at the below email address: [email protected] About Witham Central Ward Witham Central Ward is a predominantly urban Ward located in the south of the Braintree District within the town of Witham. Following the Ward boundary changes the old Witham Chipping Hill and Central Ward has been expanded in size to now include areas along Hatfield Road up to the Hatfield Peverel Ward boundary. The Chipping Hill area to the north west of the train station is no longer included within the Ward boundary. Local Governance Witham is served by a Town Council, for contact details please follow the below link: http://braintree.cmis.uk.com/braintree/ParishandTownCouncils.aspx Witham Central Ward is currently served by the following Braintree District Councillors, Angela Kilmartin and Sue Wilson. To find your District Councillor’s contact details please use the below link: https://braintree.cmis.uk.com/braintree/Councillors/tabid/63/ScreenMode/Party/Default.aspx Witham Central Ward is covered by two County Electoral Divisions, namely, Witham Southern and Witham Northern Electoral Divisions. The County Councillor’s currently serving these divisions are Derrick Louis and Ross Playle respectively. To find your County Councillor’s contact details please use the below link: https://cmis.essex.gov.uk/essexcmis5/Councillors.aspx The UK Parliament Constituency that covers the Witham Central Ward area is the Witham County Constituency; the MP responsible for this constituency is currently Priti Patel. To find your MP’s contact details please use the below link: https://www.writetothem.com Community Facilities For information on facilities, transport links, planning applications and crime levels within the Ward, please follow the below link and enter the postcode for the area you wish to investigate. https://apps.esriuk.com/app/MyNearest/18/view/f1240506ad064aea8b7f5c8519d79b39/index.html Major Businesses, Industrial Estates & Commercial Developments The following commercial areas are situated within the Ward, namely, the Witham Town Centre, Newland Shopping Centre, The Grove Centre Shopping Centre and Mayland House which houses Co-Funds, this is one of the larger employers in the District with 600 employees on site. 5 For more detailed information on the businesses and commercial developments within the Ward please contact the Economic Development Team at the below email address: [email protected] Development Sites The Braintree Development Plan sets out what, where, when, and how development will be managed in the District. Whilst the National Planning Policy Framework July 2018 (NPPF) sets out the presumption in favour of sustainable development, planning law requires that applications for planning permission must be determined in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. The NPPF does not change the statutory status of the development plan as the starting point for decision making. The current adopted Braintree District Development Plan is made up of a number of documents, including the Local Plan Review 2005 and the Core Strategy 2011. See: https://www.braintree.gov.uk/info/200230/planning_policy/712/braintree_district_development_plan for further details. The Local Plan Review is available to view as an interactive document at: http://www.planvu.co.uk/bdc/plan_index.htm The relevant maps show the allocations for homes, employment, open space and other designations. Inset maps can be found for each town or village with a defined development boundary, within which development is generally acceptable subject to the policies in the Plan. Areas outside of the development boundaries are classified as countryside where development