For the purpose of this week’s blog I intend to look at how sustainable my home town is and to what extend if any is it not sustainable.
At home I live between two places however for the purpose of this blog I intend to look at the town of Redditch in North Worcestershire. Although I have mentioned this town in a previous blog I will just outline it again. The town is classed as a new town the same as Milton Keynes. The town lies roughly in the middle of three motorways networks those being the M5, M42 and the M40 making commuting from the town relatively easy. Looking at the super output area (SOA) of where I live there is a population of nearly 79,000 with 32,000 dwellings according to the census of 2001 with the population density being 15 people per a hectare.
The Sustainable communities: Building for the future (a national plan of action) wants to change the approach to where people want to live and creating sustainable communities that are:
♦ are economically prosperous;
♦ have decent homes at a price people can afford;
♦ safeguard the countryside;
♦ enjoy a well-designed, accessible and pleasant living and
working environment;
♦ are effectively and fairly represented and governed, with a
strong sense of community.
In terms of looking at the above criteria when compared to information that has been collected by census and other methods the estimated social grade for this area of Redditch puts its majority of residents in the C1 category: Supervisory, clerical, junior managerial / administrative / professional (17,000). So does that mean Redditch is economically prosperous? I think it depends which way you look at it. This area of Redditch is near to the town centre where a lot of retail premises and office complexes are. If this was compared to another area of Redditch then the figures could be completely different for example the north nearer the M42 motorway network.
♦ are economically prosperous;
♦ have decent homes at a price people can afford;
♦ safeguard the countryside;
♦ enjoy a well-designed, accessible and pleasant living and
working environment;
♦ are effectively and fairly represented and governed, with a
strong sense of community.
In terms of looking at the above criteria when compared to information that has been collected by census and other methods the estimated social grade for this area of Redditch puts its majority of residents in the C1 category: Supervisory, clerical, junior managerial / administrative / professional (17,000). So does that mean Redditch is economically prosperous? I think it depends which way you look at it. This area of Redditch is near to the town centre where a lot of retail premises and office complexes are. If this was compared to another area of Redditch then the figures could be completely different for example the north nearer the M42 motorway network.
Another criteria of above to consider is that of safeguarding the countryside, Redditch although a large town and is obviously urban it is surrounded by quite a considerable amount of countryside, This countryside is well protected and several areas of it are owned in part by the national trust. Also with Redditch being an industrial town there are plenty of brownfield sites and these tend to be used over the surrounding countryside.
Other aspects to which can be considered in terms of sustainability is that of deprivation levels. For this area the number of young people not staying in higher education is 48%. Another deprivation statistic is that 33% of working adults have no or little qualifications.
Redditch always has always had dwellings and in 1964 became a new town and its population shot from 30,000 to 80,000. The town centre and main infrastructure to the town was knocked down and rebuilt also with numerous industrial and trading estates being built. Due to this 40 years on some of the main buildings within the town are starting to fall into disrepair and look very outdated.
In terms of being sustainable I do think Redditch is partly sustainable however there are room for plenty of improvements. The infrastructure to get in and around the town is excellent with barely any traffic during busy rush hour periods. I personally believe that there isn’t that much of a community in the town, due to there being different areas split off by main dual carriageways. Also from 2004 Redditch was one of the main areas in the West Midlands that had a large influx of East European workers which segmented the town even further. Also the average age of someone living in this area is 45, this means that unless in the future there are more young people moving into the area then the area will become more unsustainable as there will be more people of retirement age than of working age.
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