Sixth Annual Monitoring Report

1 Introduction

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

1.2 The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and associated regulations require us to produce an Annual Monitoring Report, to do the following tasks:

  • Review progress in preparing development plan documents, supplementary planning documents and other documents against the timetable and milestones published in our Local Development Scheme;

  • Assess the extent to which our development plan document policies and supplementary planning documents are being implemented;

  • If a policy is not being implemented, explain why and set out what steps we are taking to ensure that it is implemented or, alternatively, amended or replaced;

  • Identify the significant effects of implementing our policies and whether they are as intended; and

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

1.3 Our annual monitoring report is therefore a key mechanism for assessing the performance and effects of our Local Development Framework, 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, our annual monitoring report is required to consider:

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

  • Whether policies and related targets in our development plan documents and supplementary planning documents have been met or progress is being made towards meeting them or, where they are not being met or are not on track, the reasons why;

  • What impact the policies are having in respect of national targets and any other targets identified in development plan documents and supplementary planning documents, that are not covered by the above;

  • What significant effects implementation of the policies is having on the social, environmental and economic objectives by which we define sustainability 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 our policies need changing to reflect changes in national policy; or

  • If our policies or proposals need changing, the actions we need to take to achieve this.

1.5 This is Wigan's sixth annual monitoring report and is required to be prepared and submitted to the Government Office for the North West by the end of December 2010.  It relates to the year from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010.  Where it has not been possible to provide as full a picture as possible in this 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 Local Development Scheme in the light of that information or for other reasons.  The third section deals with planning policy implementation which is assessed against both the national core output indicators and local indicators.  In practice these other local indicators are, in the main, taken from the Unitary Development Plan until a new set of indicators are established to monitor the policies of the Core Strategy.  The final section pulls out the main conclusions derived from the monitoring.

Key Contextual Characteristics of the Borough

1.7 Demographics

Population size

  • Wigan has an estimated resident population in 2009 of 307,300 (up from 305,495 in 2006) (Source: Greater Manchester Forecasting Model, Oxford Economics, 2009).

Ethnicity

  • 97.5% of the borough is white, which is higher than the national average of 89.1%.  The remainder of the population is made up as follows.

    • Mixed race – 0.6%
    • Asian or Asian British – 0.9%
    • Black or black British – 0.5%
    • Chinese – 0.2%
    • Other – 0.2%

    (Office of National Statistics, June 2005)

Migration

  • 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 2007, Wigan was ranked 67 out of 354 local authorities in England, where 1 was the most deprived.  This rank was derived from the average deprivation score of the Local Super Output Areas in the local Authority (Source: National Statistics, 2007).

    Overall Wigan has become less deprived than in 2004 when it was the 53rd most deprived authority in England.

1.8 Housing

Household types and tenure

  • The proportion of detached, semi-detached houses and bungalows is higher at 65.9% than that of the national profile for this type (England 55%).  The level of terraced houses and flats (34.1%0 is lower than the national profile (England 45%).

  • Wigan has a relatively high proportion of owner occupation (72.5%) and 19.4% socially rented stock.

(Source: Housing Needs and Demand Study 2008)

House prices

  • House prices based on average sales and valuations have increased by 4.2% between March 2009 and March 2010 although there are more recent indications of a slowing in the rate of increase of house prices.

  • The credit crunch and its effects on the mortgage markets has made it even more difficult for first time buyers to enter the housing market.

(Source: Wigan Housing Market Update Issue 3)

1.9 Health and Leisure

Healthiness

  • As of August 2008, 10.4% of the working age population were claiming incapacity benefits or severe disablement allowance.

  • In Wigan 1130 people died of circulatory diseases in 2006 - a third (383) of them aged less than 75 years. While the mortality rate has been declining year on year it remains significantly above the England and North West average

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

Physical activity and leisure

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

  • In a Wigan Council survey conducted in November 2007, 76% of people said they had visited a park or country park within the last 12 months.

1.10 Economy and Employment

Employment

  • 4.3% of working age people in Wigan are claiming Job Seekers Allowance compared to a Great Britain average of 3.6%.  More males (6.2%) are claiming this than females (2.4%). Unemployment is not distributed evenly, with deprived areas making up a greater proportion of the total. (Source: NOMIS – August 2010)
  • 18.1% of working age people in Wigan are claiming out of work benefits compared to 13.4% nationally and 16.8% in the North West. (Source: National Indicators, February 2010)

Wages

  • In 2009 the average gross wage of employees in Wigan was £21,956.  This remains below Greater Manchester (£23,919), the North West (£23,867) and national (£26,470) averages. (Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2009)
  • At March 2010, 77% of the working age population in Wigan was economically active.  Of the 46,700 who are economically inactive 35,900 do not want a job. This is 17.7% of the total working age population (Source: NOMIS)

1.11 Community Safety

  • Throughout 2008/09, overall crime continued to fall by a further 8.5%, continuing the consistent crime reduction trend from 2003/04.  When comparing 08/09's overall crime rate of 81 per 1,000 population with 03/04's 107 per 1,000 population, a total percentage reduction of 24% is noted.

  • 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 about being a victim of crime than is the reality.

             (Source: Wigan Council, 2008)

1.12 Community Development

  • In 2006/07, 69% of residents believed that people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local area.  This is fewer than the North West (74%) and national (76%) averages.

  • In 2006/07, 23% of people felt they can influence decisions in their locality.  This is fewer than the North West (27%) and national (29%) averages.

  • An average of about 41% of people did not strongly feel that they belonged to their immediate neighbourhood (compared to 40% in the North West and 41% nationally).

(Source: 2008 Place Survey)

1.13 Education, skills and learning

Qualifications

  • At December 2009, 15.1% of the economically active population had no qualifications.  This compared to a northwest average of 13.8% and a Great Britain average of 12.3%.
  • 45.4% of Wigan’s working age population are qualified to at least Level 3 or higher. This is lower than the North West (46.9%) and Great Britain averages (49.3%).
  • 22.6% of Wigan’s working age population are qualified to at least Level 4 or higher, compared to the North West (27%) and Great Britain averages (29.9%).

1.14 Environment

  • River water quality is monitored by the Environment Agency under new requirements of the Water Framework Directive.  The Environment Agency monitor the current status and objectives for water bodies with a target of aiming to achieve at least ‘good status’ for all waters, including both surface and ground water.  Wigan Borough is covered by the North West river basin district and the key characteristics of water quality is being progressed as an emerging local indicator through the Core Strategy with detail to be provided in next years Annual Monitoring Report.

1.15 Transport

Key facts

  • There are around 1,200 km of road in Wigan borough including 17 km motorway, 104 km A roads, 55 km B roads, 68 km other classified roads and 959 km unclassified roads .  45 km is classed as freight primary network, 100 km as Quality Bus Corridor and 27 km with on road cycle lanes.
  • There is 49 km of railway (regional and national).
  • There are 435 km public footpaths and 35 km bridleways.

Traffic growth

  • 12-hour weekday traffic flows on A and B roads remained the same in Wigan between 2006 and 2007.
  • Since 1993 traffic flows on A and B roads have increased by 5%.
  • 2001 census data records that nearly 90% Wigan residents travel to work by car, but for 48% this journey is less than 5 km.
  • 2001 census also records that less than 1% Wigan workers travel to work by train.

1.16 Waste

  • 151,660 tonnes of household waste was produced in the Borough during 2008-09, a continuing reduction in the amount produced in previous years.
  • 28% of household waste was recycled or composted during 2008-09, an improvement on previous years. It is expected that there will be a larger increase in 2009/10 with the expansion to the Brown bin scheme.

             (Source: Wigan Council, 2009)