Borough of Oadby & Wigston Directorate of Community Services Oadby and Wigston Core Strategy Leicester Principal Urban Area Strategic Planning Context Directorate of Community Services Oadby and Wigston Borough Council October 2009 Contents 1. Introduction 2. Extent of Leicester Principal Urban Area 3. Green Wedges 4. Hierarchy of Centres 5. Transport Corridors 6. Employment Development 7. Housing 8 Commuting Appendix 1 – PUA Composition Appendix 2 – Retail Floorspace Statistics Appendix 3 – Public Transport Frequencies Appendix 4 – Employment Land Supply & Demand 1. Introduction 1.1 This document seeks to summarise elements of existing published reports and emergent development plan documents in order to express the strategic planning context of the Leicester Principal Urban Area (PUA). 1.2 Due to the timing of the preparation of various development plan documents by local planning authorities it is not necessarily intended that they will all respond to the strategic planning context immediately. However, this document provides a basis upon which consideration can be given in the future. 1.3 By convention, the component elements of the PUA are described clockwise from due north. In terms of local authorities, this sequence is Leicester City, Charnwood Borough, Harborough District, Oadby & Wigston Borough, and Blaby District. This sequence does not indicate any order of precedence. 1.4 The documents that have informed this strategic planning context include: • Leicester City Core Strategy Submission (Sept 2009) • Charnwood Borough Core Strategy Further Consultation (Oct 2008) • Harborough District Core Strategy Alternative Options Consultation (June 2009) • Oadby & Wigston Borough Core Strategy Submission (Sept 2009) • Blaby District Core Strategy Publication Consultation (July 2009) 1.5 Other key sources include: • CgMs Central Leicestershire Retail Study (2003) • PACEC Leicester & Leicestershire Housing Market Area Employment Land Study (December 2008) • Leicestershire / Central Leicestershire Bus Map (June 2009) • Strategic Housing Market Area Assessment (2008) • River Soar and Grand Union Canal Strategy (2009) 1.6 Officers of each of the PUA Authorities, including Leicestershire County Council have been consulted on a draft of this document and where relevant, their comments have been included. A background paper has been produced which documents the comments, responses and a changes to the document as a result of the consultation. 2. Extent of Leicester Principal Urban Area 2.1 The built up area centred on Leicester is designated as one of 5 Principal Urban Areas in the region by Policy 3 of the East Midlands Regional Plan. Policy 1 of the Three Cities Sub-Regional Strategy in that plan further defines the built up area centred on Leicester as comprising: Table 2.1 RSS Policy 3 Definition of Leicester PUA Local Authority PUA Settlements Leicester City Whole Area Charnwood Borough Birstall Thurmaston Harborough District Scraptoft Thurnby & Bushby Oadby & Wigston Borough Oadby Wigston South Wigston Blaby District Glen Parva Braunstone Leicester Forest East Kirby Muxloe Glenfield 2.2 For the avoidance of doubt, Meridian Park, Fosse Park and Grove Park commercial estates are part of the built up area of Braunstone and thus of the PUA. 2.3 In accordance with the 2001 Census analysis in Appendix 1, the different local authority areas contribute to the PUA as shown below: Fig 2.1 Composition of PUA by District Normal blue font indicates expression of percentage of PUA Charnwood Italic font indicates expression of percentage of an individual PUA 87% Not in PUA Authority Area Charnwood 5% of PUA Leicester City Blaby Blaby 70% of PUA 54% 10% of Harborough 94% Not in PUA No t in PUA PUA Oadby & Wigston 14% of PUA Harborough 1% of PUA 3. Green Wedges and Green Infrastructure 3.1 Saved policies from Local Plans across the PUA define a number of Green Wedges around the conurbation, extending from the open countryside towards the heart of the urban area. The East Midlands Regional Plan recognises that these Green Wedges serve useful strategic planning functions in preventing the merger of settlements, guiding development form, providing a ‘green lung’ into urban areas and acting as a recreational resource. 3.2 All of the Local Planning Authorities in the Housing Market Area have agreed a joint methodology for the review of Green Wedges. Some of these Local Planning Authorities have already advanced Core Strategies and will be preserving Green Wedges but others with emerging Core Strategies may indicate changes to their Green Wedges. 3.3 Currently, Green Wedges are designated in the following locations: Table 3.1 Green Wedges Green Wedge Green areas linked; Built areas separated; Leicester/(Beaumont Abbey Meadows to Birstall from Rushy Mead and Leys)/Birstall (also Watermead Country Park Thurmaston includes Abbey Meadows to the Thurcaston/Anstey/ open countryside around Mowmacre Hill and Ashton Cropston) Thurcaston Green from Birstall Birstall/Leicester/ Humberstone Heights Golf Rushey Mead from Hamilton Thurmaston (Soar Course to the countryside Valley North) around Barkby Thorpe Hamilton Nether Hall Farm to Nether Hall from Scraptoft Scraptoft Golf Course Leicester/Scraptoft Thurnby Nurseries to the Thurnby from Downing Drive open countryside to the South of Thurnby Thurnby/Leicester/ Leicestershire Golf Course Evington from Oadby Oadby to the open countryside around Stoughton Oadby/Leicester/ Knighton Park to the open Oadby from Wigston Wigston countryside around Newton Harcourt Blaby/Glen Parva Faircharm Lock to the Aylestone and Glen Parva (Sence Valley) open land of the River from Rowley Fields and Soar and Sence Braunstone Town floodplains Glen Kirby Fields to Rothley Kirby Fields from the M1 and Parva/Braunstone Brook Braunstone Frith Industrial (extends to a wider Estate Green Wedge to include Soar Valley South) Glenfield/Kirby Kirby Muxloe Sports Kirby Fields from Kirby Muxloe Muxloe/Kirby Ground to Rothley Brook Braunstone Frith Industrial Fields/Braunstone Western Golf Course to Estate from Glenfield Frith (also includes Rothley Brook Ratby and Groby) Beaumont Gorse Hill City Farm to the Glenfield from Beaumont Leys Leys/Glenfield/ A46 corridor and Rothley Anstey/Groby Brook 3.4 The River Soar and Grand Union Canal Corridor provides a key element of Green Infrastructure running through the PUA, from Birstall and Thurmaston in the north to South Wigston in the south. The PUA Authorities have worked jointly with other partners to produce a River Soar and Grand Union Canal Strategy for a 23 mile long stretch of the corridor between Loughborough and Kilby Bridge which include the entire section that runs through the PUA. 3.5 The strategy sets out the wider rationale, context, strategic priorities and actions for maximising the positive economic, social and environmental contribution of the River Soar and Grand Union Canal Corridor. 3.6 The Strategy notes that the Corridor is not currently fulfilling its potential for a number of reasons, including its low profile and poor accessibility in places. It recommends a series of actions to improve the physical landscape of the Waterway and more crucially how the Waterway is utilised. The emphasis is on outlining a route-map of short to medium term interventions that are realistic and affordable, and can help to put in place the conditions to secure long term change. 3.7 This strategy complements the emerging Local Development Frameworks and the Masterplans guiding development in central Leicester, Charnwood, Blaby and Oadby, and Wigston. It provides a unified strategy for the Waterway as it passes through this part of Leicestershire. 4. Hierarchy of Centres 4.1 The 2003 Central Leicestershire Retail Study identified a five layer hierarchy of centres across its study area. Within the PUA, emerging Core Strategies have made two refinements to this hierarchy. Firstly, Leicester City has established Hamilton as a Major District Centre but is no longer promoting it as a town centre. Secondly, retail statistics indicate that Wigston is comparable to the Major Town Centre of Beaumont Leys (see Appendix 2). This gives the following hierarchy of centres for the PUA: City Centre • Leicester Town Centres • Beaumont Leys • Wigston District Centres • Oadby • Belgrave Road • Hamilton • Birstall • Thurmaston* • Uppingham Road • Evington Road • South Wigston • Narborough Road * Charnwood Borough state in their Core Strategy consultation document that Thurmaston will be reviewed in light of wider regeneration aspirations for the settlement and its juxtaposition to the proposed sustainable urban extension. The centres within the PUA are distributed as shown below: Fig 4.1 Distribution of Centres within PUA Key BL B T BL – Beaumont Leys W – Wigston H BR O – Oadby UR City BR – Belgrave Rd H – Hamilton Centre ER NR B – Birstall O T – Thurmaston UR – Uppingham Rd ER – Evington Road W SW – South Wigston SW NR – Narborough Rd 5. Transport Corridors 5.1 The highway structure of Leicester PUA is defined by two ring-roads, an inner ring-road around the city centre and an outer ring-road around a wider central area, with a number of radial routes running out from the inner ring-road to the outer ring-road and beyond. Bus routes are often complex. In order to help analysis of the various routes this section focuses on those services that extend beyond the outer ring road and therefore serve the largest part of the PUA by travelling towards its extremity and those services that serve the town and district centres within the PUA. This section refers to centrifugal services – this indicates that account is only being taken of services travelling in one direction, usually outbound. 5.2 Paragraph 14.21 of the Central Leicestershire Local Transport Plan 2006- 2011 states: ‘ We have found that the best way to increase bus patronage is to include as many bus priority and bus service related infrastructure measures as possible, and appropriate, along a corridor as a package of measures in a single project. This results in a quality bus corridor’. 5.3 Quality Bus Corridors are proposed along all the A and B class radials from Leicester City centre, with the exception of the A6 Abbey Lane and the B5327 Anstey Lane.