Third Annual Monitoring Report

1 Introduction

1.1 Monitoring is crucial to the successful delivery of local development frameworks. It helps authorities to understand the main social, environmental and economic issues affecting their areas and the key drivers of spatial change. Regular monitoring will help to show if local development frameworks are achieving their objectives or if they should be changed in response to changing circumstances.

1.2 The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and associated regulations require authorities to produce Annual Monitoring Reports (AMRs) in which they are required to undertake the following tasks:

• Review actual Local Development Framework (LDF) progress in terms of local development document preparation against the timetable and milestones in the Local Development Scheme;

• Assess the extent to which policies in local development documents are being implemented;

• Where policies are not being implemented, explain why and set out what steps are being taken to ensure that the policy is implemented, or whether the policy is to be amended or replaced;

• Identify the significant effects of implementing policies in local development documents and whether they are as intended; and

• Set out whether policies are to be amended or replaced.

1.3 The annual monitoring report is therefore a key mechanism for assessing the performance and effects of the LDF, and for putting into practice the concept of 'plan, monitor and manage' whereby the findings of monitoring feed directly into any review of policy that may be required.

1.4 In particular, AMRs are required to consider:

• Whether the timetable and milestones for the preparation of documents set out in the local development scheme have been met or progress is being made towards meeting them or, where they are not being met or not on track, the reasons why;

• Whether policies and related targets in local development documents have been met or progress is being made towards meeting them; or

• Where they are not being met or not on track to being achieved, the reasons why;

• What impact the policies are having in respect of national and regional targets and any other targets identified in local development documents and not covered by the above;

• What significant effects implementation of the policies is having on the social, environmental and economic objectives by which sustainability is defined and whether these effects are intended;

• Whether the policies in the local development document need adjusting or replacing because they are not working as intended;

• Whether policies need changing to reflect changes in national or regional policy; or

• If policies or proposals need changing, the actions needed to achieve this.

1.5 This is Wigan's third annual monitoring report and is required to be prepared and submitted to the Government Office for the North West by the end of December 2007. It relates to the year from 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007. Where it has not been possible to provide as full a picture as possible in this third monitoring report, in particular for the Core Output Indicators required by national guidance, as full an analysis as possible has been provided. However, the problems of providing the data have been clearly set out in the report along with an explanation of progress made in providing the data since the first monitoring report.

1.6 The report format is in 4 broad sections, the first being this introduction which, in addition to dealing with the purposes and aims of the document, includes material setting out the key contextual characteristics of the Borough.  The second section deals with the implementation of the Local Development Scheme and compares the timetable and milestones set out in that document with what has been actually achieved in practice during the year.  It then goes on to consider any need to revise the LDS in the light of that information or for other reasons.  The third section deals with planning policy implementation which is assessed against both the core output indicators laid down in national guidance and against other local indicators.  In practice these other local indicators are, in the main, those indicators laid down in the adopted Replacement Unitary Development Plan.  It also includes commentary on the need for development of future monitoring systems to fill any shortfalls in data collection.  The final section pulls out the main conclusions derived from the monitoring.

Key Contextual Characteristics of the Borough

1.7 Population

Population size

• Wigan has an estimated resident population of 306,700, of which 151,000 are men and 155,600 are women.  31,000 are over 70 years of age and 75,700 are under 20 years of age.                              

               (Source: ONS mid-year population estimates, 2005)

Ethnic composition

• Based on 2001 census data, 294,149 people (97.6%) are white: British; 1,744 (0.6%) are white: Irish; 1, 613 (0.5%) are white: other. The other 3,909 people resident in the Borough are of 13 other ethnic groups but no more than 700 people in any other single ethnic group. (Source: 2001 Census)

• This data is fairly dated, and recent migration trends may have changed these figures slightly.

• In fact, there are estimated to be around 2,000 economic migrants currently living in the borough, largely originating from Eastern European countries such as Poland. (Source: Wigan Council, 2007) .

Deprivation

• In the indices of Deprivation 2004, Wigan was ranked 53 out of 354 local authorities in England, where 1 was the most deprived and 354 the least deprived. This rank was derived from the average deprivation score of the Local Super Output Areas in the local authority (Source: National Statistics, 2005)

1.8 Housing

Household types and tenure

• 75% of the properties in the Borough are semi-detached and terraced with detached properties accounting for under a fifth of the Borough offer.  Flats and apartments account for 7.7% with the majority being purpose built.  The housing market largely caters for family housing. (Source: Census, 2001)

• Compared with the national picture Wigan has a high proportion of owner occupation (80.4%) and 19.61% socially rented stock (Source, HSSA, 2005)

House prices

• The average house price for Wigan Borough in the second quarter of 2007 rose to £134,103 (land registry).

• Wages have not increased as much as the rise in house prices, so there has been a deterioration in affordability

1.9 Health and Leisure

Life expectancy

• Although life expectancy has improved in Wigan, it still remains lower than the North West and national averages.

(Source: ONS, 2004)

Healthiness

• 22 % of the population of the borough have a limiting long-term illness

• 13% of residents considered their health to be poor over the last 12 months (Source: Wigan Health Survey, 2006)

•  Residents living in more deprived areas are more likely to report poorer health (including dental health). (Source: Wigan Health Survey, 2006).

Physical activity and leisure

• 60% of the population report low levels of physical activity (source: Wigan Health Survey, 2006)

• 82% of residents have visited parks and open spaces in the last 12 months (source: Citizens Panel, March 2006)

1.10 Economy and Employment

Employment

• Based on Jobseekers Allowance Claimants, the current unemployment rate in Wigan is 2.7%.  This compares with a national average of 2.5% and North West figure of 2.8%.  Unemployment is not evenly distributed, with deprived areas making up a greater percentage of the total.

              (Source: NOMIS claimant rate, 2006-07 Quarter 1)

Wages

•  Wigan still lags behind North West and national averages for wages. The weekly average for Wigan in December 2006 was £383.70; this is £26 lower that the northwest average and £66.60 lower than the national average.

              (Source: Nomis, 2006)

1.11 Community Safety

• Overall crime in Wigan has fallen consistently over the last 4 years, from 73 crimes per 1000 people in 2003-2004 to 60 crimes per 1000 people in 2006-2007 (British Crime survey basket of 10 crimes).
• However, despite these trends, and the fact that Wigan has the lowest rate of crime in Greater Manchester, residents in the borough are more worried of being a victim of crime than is the reality.

             (Source: Wigan Council, 2007)

1.12 Education, skills and learning

Qualifications

•  At December 2005, 12% of economically active population had no qualifications. This compared to a northwest average of 11.4% and a national average of 9.8%.       (Source: NOMIS, 2005)

1.13 Environment

River water quality

• The chemical quality of rivers in Wigan remains high and is currently better than the Northwest and national averages.
• Only 59.1% of Wigan's rivers are classified as being of "fair" or "good" biological quality. This is significantly worse than the northwest (89.3%) and national (95%) averages

             (Source: Environment Agency, 2006).

Condition of SSSIs

• Due to an ongoing programme of improvement and management, 100% of the Wigan flashes SSSI (176 hectares) is now in favourable condition.
• Natural England survey data from 2001 reveals that some of the other SSSIs in the Borough are not in very good condition, but we understand these have improved too.

             (Source: Wigan Council, 2007)

Woodland cover

• The last comprehensive survey of woodland cover in the borough undertaken in 2001 recorded 4.1%. This compared to a national figure of 8.4% and northwest average of 6.8% (Source: Forestry Commission, 2001).

Amount of derelict land

• The amount of derelict land in the Borough has reduced from 563 ha to 442 ha between 1998 and 2005.

             (Source: Wigan Council 2006)

1.14 Transport

Car usage

• A high percentage (82%) of those in employment travel to work by car (Citizens Panel 2007). This is higher than the average for Greater Manchester.
• Encouragingly, more people are travelling to work by public transport, cycle and on foot than in previous years. (17% on cycle or foot in 2007 survey compared to 11% in 2002). But levels still remain much lower than car usage.
• The amount of people who would travel by car for a journey of less than 2 miles is 61% (Citizens panel 2005), which is an increase on previous years. There is a need to reverse this negative trend, particularly as car use is often not necessary at such distances.

1.15 Other issues

Resource use and climate change

• Wigan has an estimated ecological footprint of 5.35 global hectares per person, which is similar to the national average. At this level of resource use and waste production we would need three earths to sustain our way of life.

             (Source: Stockholm Institute, 2005).

• Residents emit a total of 6.9 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide. At this level, we would exceed national targets to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 60% (of 1990 levels) by 2050.

             (Source: Defra experimental statistics, 2004-05)

Waste

• 258,000 tonnes of municipal waste was produced in the Borough in 2004-05, which is a continuation of an upward growth trend.

• 18.1% of household waste was recycled or composted during 2005-06, which is an improvement since 2003-04 figure of 11.9%. However, Wigan is still lagging behind the northwest (23.8%) and national averages (26.7%)

             (Source: Wigan Council, 2006)