Third Annual Monitoring Report

Other Local Indicators

3.39 Chapter 4 of the Wigan Replacement UDP deals with monitoring and review and specifies the Council's commitment to producing an annual monitoring report. In this UDP chapter a table of indicators and targets outlines the ways in which monitoring of the UDP will be measured.

3.40 The indicators and targets which are not covered in the Core Indicators at section 3a are included here. Each section is headed by an extract from the table in Chapter 4 of the Replacement  UDP showing the particular policy along with the output indicator selected for it. The table then shows the target for that indicator and the actual values achieved for the year 2006/07. A brief commentary follows, where appropriate, to provide a background or explanation to the figures.

Green Belt

3.41 There have been 8 appeals against refusals on Green Belt grounds during the year. Of these, all but one were dismissed.

Safeguarded Land

3.42 There have been no appeals against refusal in Safeguarded Land.

Agricultural Land

3.43 36 planning permissions have been granted in areas designated as being of high quality agricultural land.  The majority of these however (21) were for minor domestic extensions to existing houses in residential areas.  Others were for changes of use of existing buildings or for uses which would not result in the development of high quality agricultural land.

Land and Buildings for Employment Use

3.44 Further details on employment land take up can be seen in appendix 2 of this document or by requesting a copy of the our Employment Land Availability Report which is published annually.

Tourism

Policy EM2 Tourism

Land for New House Building

3.45 The percentage of new and converted dwellings completed on previously -developed land has continued to exceed the target, as reported under core indicator 2b.

Environmental Protection and Enhancement

3.46 There was no derelict land reclamation during the year.

3.47 Air quality met the target though at a marginally higher level than last year. Air quality information is provided for the calendar year 2006.

Nature Conservation

3.48 Four planning permissions were granted within Sites of Biological Importance.  Three of these related to the substitution of house types on a development site at Primrose Lane which was given permission at appeal.  The fourth is for a change of use in one of the buildings at Gibfield, Atherton.  There is therefore no significant impact from these permissions.

3.49 There were 50 planning permissions granted within the Wildlife Corridors but relating mostly to change of use, conversion of existing buildings, extensions to properties, storage of materials and other uses that will have no impact upon the effectiveness of the wildlife corridor.  None of the permissions have caused severance of a wildlife corridor.

Design

3.50 The Council's Local Development Scheme (LDS) previously included 3 Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD) dealing with design guidance. These were those dealing with Landscape Design, Residential Design and Shop Front Design. All 3 documents were produced and adopted in line with the timetable set down in the LDS. The current LDS has no design SPD's due for completion in 2006/07.

Conservation

3.51 There have been no appeals against refusal of Conservation Area of Listed Building consent during the year and all other conservation indicators also met their targets.

3.52 There have been several archaeological investigations undertaken, as requested by the GM Archaeological Unit, as detailed above.

Accessibility

3.53 Work was undertaken on a further 22 school travel plans and 45% of schools now have a travel plan in place.  There are currently 33 workplace travel plans at various stages of development across the borough.  These include a number in conjunction with planning applications such as Leigh Sports Village, Pemberton Park and the Primary Care Trust.  New travel plan management software is being developed.

Hierarchy and Role of Centres

Vitality and viability of town and local centres

3.54 Measuring the vitality and viability of town and local centres is valuable in monitoring the health of centres.  Key indicators for monitoring are described by National Planning Policy 6 ‘Planning for Town Centres’ and include retailer representation, diversity of uses, rents and yields, and vacancy rates.  These are all reflected below.  Other indicators of vitality and viability are monitored regularly for the Wigan Borough retail studies; such data for 2006 can be found in the Wigan Borough Retail and Leisure Study 2007. 

3.55 Unless otherwise stated the information given has been taken from our Town and Local Centre Database.  Town and local centre surveys are undertaken annually to ensure this information is kept up to date.  However, caution most be taken when making comparisons due to alterations to centre boundaries from 2001 – 2005.  The local centres where introduced to the UDP in 2003 and as such, 2003 is the base year for monitoring of the local centres. 

Retailer Representation

3.56 Retailer representation is a measure of the national multiples trading in a given centre.  A list of multiple retailers in the UK is taken from the Retail Directory for the year required for monitoring and a checklist is carried out from the data held in our town and local centres database.  Unfortunately this information is not available at the current time.

3.57  Diversity of local uses data covers a wide range of shop types as defined by the Use Class Order.  The uses provided are those which are mainly found in local centres and include A1 (shops), A2 (financial and professional services), A3 (cafes and restaurants), A4 (pubs and bars), A5 (hot food takeaways).  Supplementary information is also shown on the mix of convenience (food), comparison (non food) and service retail.  Other key uses include B1 (offices), C3 (residential), D1 (non-residential institutions) and D2 (assembly and leisure).  The data provided does not include upper residential and/or office accommodation as this has proven difficult to measure accurately and needs further checking.

3.58 Trends for change of use in local centres during 2006/07 have followed closely those for 2005.  The main trends emerging from the data above show a general increase in A3 ‘café and restaurants’ and A5 ‘hot food takeaways’ uses within local centres.  The concentration of hot food establishments will continue to be considered against Policy S1D ‘Local Centres’ and our Supplementary Planning Guidance on ‘Hot food establishments.’  The tables above also show an increase in A1 service provision such as hairdressers and beauty salons and this continues to follow national trends.  There is an evident decrease in unit numbers for convenience (food) shopping which will require continued close monitoring under Policy S1D of the Replacement UDP. 

3.59 This continued trend in the loss of convenience units in local centres is a key issue for which the Local Development Framework will look to address.  Convenience stores provide an essential local service and are a key use within local centres.

Prime Shopping Rents and Retail Yields

3.60 The four largest town centres in the Borough are monitored for this purpose.  Both the rents and yields data has been provided by the District Valuer for the 1st April of the year ending (i.e. for 2005/06 it is taken at 1st April 2006). 

3.61 The rental data is for Zone A rental values (i.e. the most valuable shop frontage zone).  The factors which determine rental levels are varied but are mainly determined by the flow of pedestrians passing a shop front and their spending power, together with the availability of suitable retail floorspace.  The above table identifying rental data shows that all 4 town centres have increased there rental values since 2001.

3.62 Prime retail yields are a useful measure of retailer and investor confidence in a centre.  Lower yields tend to indicate expected future growth in rental values whereas a high yield often indicates a peripheral or declining centre.  The above yields are ‘all risks yield’ which is a useful tool for establishing benchmarks for general market levels.  The confidence in all four centres has increased since 2001.  

Vacancy Rates

3.63 The table below shows the total amount of commercial vacancies (ground floor) against all ground floor units for both town and local centres.  However, there must be caution when comparing the number of vacant units for each of the town centres as the town centres themselves have been subject to boundary changes since 2001.

3.64 Comparisons can be made for vacancies within town centres from 2005 onwards and for local centres from 2003 onwards.

3.65 Using the percentage change as a monitoring tool, it is clear that all the town centres have either seen no change or, a decrease in commercial vacancies since 2001.  However, the percentage change figures for the local centres are misleading as only 1 unit difference can show a large percentage increase / decrease due to the relatively small centre size.  It is therefore best to consider the actual number of vacant units as a change when assessing the local centres.  The Local Centres have either seen no change or, a decrease in commercial vacancies since 2001.  There is nothing significant to report here.

3.66 The proportion of vacant retail units in the primary retail area is another indicator to consider in measuring vitality and viability.  This information if unfortunately not available at the current time but will be considered in forthcoming Annual Monitoring Reports.

Pedestrian Flows

3.67 Pedestrian flows refer to the number and movements of people on the streets, in different parts of the centre at different times at the day available for businesses to attract into shops, restaurants or other facilities. 

3.68 As part of the Wigan Borough Retail and Leisure Study 2007, pedestrian flows were undertaken in 2006/07 for the Boroughs nine town centres.  The information collected from the pedestrian flow surveys have been used within the study as one of many indicators for assessing vitality and viability of the centres.  Unfortunately, these are stand alone results that do not fit well within this AMR as they cannot be compared with previous years. Unfortunately, pedestrian flows were not commissioned in 2005 due to limited resources. 

3.69 However, It is worth noting that many external factors can affect the results of pedestrian flows (i.e. the weather, market days, road works, redevelopment etc) and as such it is questionable in any event whether robust comparisons can be made.    

Development of Allocated Sites

3.70 Of the two sites allocated for shopping development in the UDP, the Grand Arcade development at Station Road, Wigan was completed in March 2006.  Planning consent has been given for 2 more phases adjoining the Grand Arcade and includes a mix of commercial and residential uses.  The allocation for retail development at Leigh East has planning permission, work has not yet started. 

Leisure and Community Facilities

3.71 It is anticipated that by the time of next years monitoring report we will have the full results of the Open Space, Sport and Recreation Assessment which has been commissioned to provide a baseline for monitoring this indicator.

Mineral Working

3.72 There have been no appeals against refusal of permission for mineral working and no permissions for peat extraction on remnant mossland.

Waste Management

Planning Obligations

3.73 Of the 69 Section 106 Agreements completed during the year, 58 were Unilateral Undertakings and 11 were agreements.