CS5 Priority Places

The Core Strategy seeks to achieve a sustainable community for Woking and improve upon the wellbeing of its people. It sees sustainable communities as places where people want to live, work and visit now and in the future. A place that meets the diverse needs of its residents, and that is sensitive to the environment. Sustainable communities are safe, inclusive and well planned places that offer equality of opportunity and good services for all.

Woking is a relatively prosperous Borough. However, small pockets of deprivation exist where disadvantaged communities, often home to the most vulnerable people in society, do not benefit from the surrounding affluence. The Council is committed to working with partners to ensure that resources are targeted in order to bring about positive changes in these areas.

The Surrey Strategic Partnership, of which Woking Borough Council is a member, has identified the ward of Maybury and Sheerwater as one of four `Priority Places' in the county which will be subject to multiple interventions by county-wide and local partners in a coordinated manner in order to deliver its targets. The area has around 3,500 households. The need to address areas of deprivation is a key part of the spatial vision and objectives of the Core Strategy.

The ward of Maybury and Sheerwater is comprised of six sub areas. The Devonshire Avenue and Dartmouth Avenue area of Sheerwater being identified as within the 14% most deprived areas nationally, and the most deprived area in the county⁵. It is ranked the most deprived area in the county for health deprivation and disability, income and employment, and ranked fourth in the county for education, skills and training levels. The underlying issues in Maybury and Sheerwater are complex, and vary between the different sub areas. There are a number of Council and Partnership papers that set out these issues in detail.

In addition to the identification of Maybury and Sheerwater as a Priority Place, at the local level, through the work of the Woking Partnership, the Lakeview Estate area of Goldsworth Park has also been identified as a Priority Place to which resources should be targeted. The Lakeview Estate is the second most deprived area in Woking Borough and falls within the 28% most deprived areas nationally. Although levels of deprivation are not as acute as in Maybury and Sheerwater, the Lakeview Estate experiences some specific socio-economic issues, particularly relating to having one of the highest concentrations of socially rented family accommodation in the Borough, and a high number of single parent households. The Lakeview Estate is a small geographical area, home to around 630 households in a relatively high density development. Therefore, the application of this policy has a wider reach than just the Lakeview Estate and extends to the Goldsworth Park area generally, where the local social and community infrastructure that serves Lakeview is located.

CS5: Priority Places

The Council will work with partners to target resources to the Borough's Priority Places.

The objectives for these areas are set out in the Priority Places Action Plan⁶. The Council will take a proactive approach to achieve these objectives by working with its partners to implement a number of schemes which will make a positive contribution towards addressing the challenges in these areas.

Maybury and Sheerwater

Housing

The Council will enable the provision of around an additional 250 new homes in Maybury and Sheerwater between 2010 and 2027. In Maybury, these homes will primarily be provided through the redevelopment of poor quality housing stock and outmoded and outdated employment floorspace7. In Sheerwater, these new homes will primarily be provided by bringing forward land in the Council's ownership for redevelopment.

The Council will seek to redress the current tenure imbalance in Maybury and Sheerwater by requiring new affordable dwellings in the area to be family homes (2+ bedrooms) and giving priority to the intermediate rent and shared ownership tenures.

Employment

The Council will safeguard land within the existing employment areas in Maybury and Sheerwater for B uses and encourage proposals that create new opportunities for local employment within them. In the Forsyth Road employment area redevelopment of vacant sites will be encouraged for B uses, unless redevelopment is for an alternative employment generating use which contributes to the aims of this policy and would not jeopardise the B use led nature of the employment area.

The Council will promote local labour agreements with developers to enable local people in the Priority Places to secure employment and skills development.

Retail

The Council will seek to increase the choice of retail offer in Sheerwater and will support in principle the development of a convenience retail outlet in Sheerwater, subject to an assessment of the full impacts of such a proposal on the vitality and viability of the existing shopping parade and other local convenience stores. It will work with partners to achieve this, making use of Compulsory Purchase Order powers if necessary.

The vitality of the shopping parade in Sheerwater will be protected and enhanced to ensure that the community has a genuine choice of shopping and services. The loss of existing retail units will be resisted in both Maybury and Sheerwater.

Accessibility

In order to improve accessibility into and out of the Maybury and Sheerwater area, the Council will work with Surrey County Council to bring forward proposals for a new access road through Monument Way East and Monument Way West, as indicated on the Proposals Map. This is expected to be delivered within the period of the Core Strategy.

The Council will work with Surrey County Council and public transport providers to:

Infrastructure

The Council will channel developer contributions to deliver infrastructure in Maybury and Sheerwater in line with policy CS16: Infrastructure delivery. Priority infrastructure items are detailed in the Infrastructure Delivery Plan.

Public realm and design

The Council will seek to improve the image of Maybury and Sheerwater by promoting high quality design, the enhancement of open spaces and other public amenity areas. Development proposals will be expected to have built-in natural surveillance that designs out crime and fear of crime, creates direct, safe routes to neighbouring communities and nearby retail and commercial facilities, and provide a safe environment.

Lakeview

No significant development is planned for the Lakeview Estate over the Plan period. The key partnership interventions in the area are based on skills, training and education provision and improving access to health services. The Council will therefore seek to assist in the delivery of the objectives for the area by channelling developer contributions to deliver infrastructure in the Lakeview Estate and its local vicinity in line with policy CS16: Infrastructure delivery. Priority infrastructure items are detailed in the Infrastructure Delivery Plan.

The Council will resist the loss of existing retail convenience stores in the vicinity.

Existing community facilities will be protected and the provision of additional social and community infrastructure will be encouraged.

The Council will continue to work with Surrey County Council to improve the existing cycle network through Lakeview including the provision of secure cycle parking at key locations.

Details of the interventions for both Priority Places are set out in the Priority Places Action Plan.

⁵ Indices of Multiple Deprivation, 2007 (CLG).

⁶Woking Borough Council Priority Places Action Plan includes objectives for Maybury and Sheerwater and the forthcoming Lakeview Action Plan, written by Lakeview. Community Action will include the objectives for Lakeview.

⁷On sites outside the employment areas.

Reasoned justification

Spatial planning has a key role to play in the creation of sustainable communities, and in this instance, the reduction of both relative and absolute deprivation in our Priority Places. However, this Core Strategy is just one element of a wide range of positive interventions by partner organisations required to deliver the objectives of our Priority Places. The Council is committed to working with key partners and the local community to realise aspirations.

Maybury and Sheerwater

Housing

Housing issues in Maybury and Sheerwater are complex. There is a high level of one bedroom social rented accommodation in the Dartmouth Avenue and Devonshire Avenue area of Sheerwater. In Maybury, the issues are slightly different where there is an ageing housing stock and a large number of socially rented dwellings.

The Council's SHLAA has identified developable land to provide around an additional 250 new homes in the area by 2027. The Council will therefore seek to bring these sites forward in order to increase housing choice and also to redress the existing tenure imbalance. In Maybury, these homes will primarily be provided through the redevelopment of poor quality housing stock and outmoded and outdated employment floorspace outside of the designated employment areas. In Sheerwater, these new homes will primarily be provided by bringing forward land in the Council's ownership for redevelopment.

The Council will seek to redress the existing tenure imbalance in Maybury and Sheerwater by requiring new affordable dwellings in the area to be family homes (2+ bedrooms) and secured in the intermediate rent and shared ownership tenures. In addition to this, the Council has recently reviewed its Housing Allocations policy.

Employment

A significant proportion of the population within Maybury and Sheerwater suffers from low skill levels and below average educational attainment as well as high levels of income and employment deprivation. The Priority Places Action Plan identifies a number of positive interventions to:

• improve educational attainment of local school children
• increase the numbers of children staying on at school after 16 and entering higher education
• increase access to and uptake of adult education, particularly basic literacy, numeracy and ICT
• reduce unemployment and numbers of people claiming long-term illness/disability benefits.

Examples of planned/ongoing interventions include working with local schools to improve take up of higher education through the national Aim Higher programme; working with Connexions to promote and increase uptake of services for people not in employment, education or training; increase provision and take-up of English language courses, literacy and numeracy for adults; setting up a job/skills club in Sheerwater to help local people secure employment opportunities; and provision of work experience and apprenticeship opportunities for vulnerable young people.

In order to address income and employment deprivation in these areas through spatial planning, the Council will seek to provide opportunities for local employment. In particular, the redevelopment of office accommodation to provide more flexible mixed B class uses will be encouraged. A considerable amount of office development was constructed at the western end of the Forsyth Road Industrial Estate in the late 1980s/early 1990s. These developments have been suffering from high vacancy rates for some time with a rate of 61% recorded in 2009. The market appraisal of employment sites undertaken by Lambert Smith Hampton identified a number of weaknesses in this area's suitability as an office location and recommended that consideration should be given to the re-use/redevelopment of these offices for more appropriate mixed B class uses. This would enable both the employment potential of the area to be maximised, as well as creating job opportunities more aligned to local skills.

The Council will work with its partners to promote local labour agreements with developers which enable local people in the Priority Places to secure employment and skills development. Agreements should link where possible to existing skills/employment initiatives already planned or in place in the area.

Retail

The Council acknowledges the limited retail choice in Sheerwater and Maybury and, in accordance with PPS4: Planning for sustainable economic growth, the Council recognises that additional weight should be given to meeting deficiencies in deprived areas. PPS4: Planning for sustainable economic growth encourages the provision of shopping, leisure and local services which provide a genuine choice to meet the needs of the whole community. Car ownership in this area is low and public transport is limited so not all members of the community can easily access the retail offer in the town centre and in West Byfleet, despite the relative closeness of these centres. An additional retail convenience store would enhance consumer choice for those living in Sheerwater and Maybury. However, the existing retail and service provision also needs to be protected.

Accessibility

With low levels of car ownership and limited public transport, the Maybury and Sheerwater area suffers from poor access to a wide range of retail, employment, healthcare and community facilities. To address the issue of isolation, the Council will work with key stakeholders, through Transport for Woking, to improve accessibility into and out of the area, using a variety of transport modes.

One of the main accessibility issues is the road access into Sheerwater. At present the one way system running east and west from Monument Road restricts access to and from Woking Town Centre and creates congestion, particularly at peak times. The proposed new access road through Monument Way East would be subject to a feasibility study and an assessment of the traffic impacts on the surrounding road network and signal points. The Council will liaise with Surrey County and the Highways Authority to advance this proposal.

Maybury and Sheerwater are within easy cycling distance to the town centre if the necessary infrastructure is provided. As part of the Cycle Woking programme, the Council will look to increase the connectivity of the Borough's cycle network by extending existing cycle routes and providing additional secure cycle parking facilities at key locations in Maybury and Sheerwater to encourage cycle use. This approach would offer an alternative and more sustainable mode of transport to the car and increase accessibility to key local services. The Council will also work with Surrey County Council and bus providers to improve bus services.

There is scope to increase parking provision around the shopping parade in Sheerwater to increase trade, protect local businesses and enhance the vitality of the parade. This will be investigated to assess the impact on highway safety and existing land uses, and highway orders will be reviewed to enable this to be achieved.

Improvements to transport infrastructure, in combination with new retail development and the creation of new employment opportunities in the employment areas, will have the additional benefit of increasing passing trade to the Sheerwater Parade (and shops in Walton Road), leading to an increase in the vitality and viability of the area.

Infrastructure

The Council will channel developer contributions raised to deliver infrastructure in Maybury and Sheerwater in line with policy CS16: Infrastructure delivery. Priority infrastructure items are described in detail in the Infrastructure Delivery Plan.

Public realm and design

It is widely accepted that the quality of the environment in a neighbourhood affects the standard of living and the health and well-being of local people. The Council will therefore seek to improve the built environment in Maybury and Sheerwater by promoting high quality new development, with safe and attractive streets and public spaces. The quality of public open space in the area is generally poor, as spaces are unattractive, lack play facilities and feel unsafe due to limited opportunities for passing surveillance.

The Council will work with partners to seek to improve the built environment of Maybury and Sheerwater.

• Promoting the highest quality of design of new development and maximising the potential and setting of historic assets in Maybury.
• Explore establishing a safe network of paths, parks and avenues to reduce barriers to movement, both real and perceived, to promote access to shopping parades.
• Enhancement of public open space in each neighbourhood, continue to improve security and access through lighting, new planting, realigning footpaths, local policing and Neighbourhood Watch.
• Maximise the potential of green space. Continue to improve the facilities on offer through replacing play equipment, providing activities for teenagers and creating new facilities.
• New development proposals should strive to promote a sense of place and help transform the image and identity of Sheerwater and Maybury.
• Reducing barriers to pedestrian and cycle movement.
• Refurbishment of the shopping parade on Dartmouth Avenue.
• New developments should be designed so there is natural surveillance to reduce crime and fear of crime.

Lakeview

Infrastructure

The Council will target developer contributions raised through a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) to deliver infrastructure in Lakeview in line with policy CS16: Infrastructure delivery. Priority infrastructure items are described in detail in the Infrastructure Delivery Plan.

Lakeview is within easy cycling distance of the town centre if the necessary infrastructure is provided. The Cycle Woking programme will enable the Council to increase the connectivity of the borough's cycle network by extending existing cycle routes and providing additional secure parking at key locations in Lakeview to encourage cycle use. This will offer an alternative and more sustainable mode of transport to the car and increase accessibility to key local services.

Delivery strategy

The successful delivery of the above measures will depend on effective partnership working and strong governance arrangements. Woking Borough Council, the Woking Partnership and Surrey Strategic Partnership are all committed to providing the necessary support to deliver these priorities.

Overall governance for the delivery of the Priority Places Action Plan will be provided by the Priority Places sub group of the Woking Partnership, which in turn reports to the Surrey Strategic Partnership. In addition, the Delivery Management Group of the Surrey Strategic Partnership is responsible for ensuring that the resources of the key partners are aligned in order to achieve the objectives of the Partnership.

The Council will ensure that, through the annual service planning process, the resources of the Council are aligned to enable the direction of resources to the Priority Places.

The Council will consider using its Compulsory Purchase powers if necessary to enable key projects to be delivered.

In accordance with the Implementation and Delivery Plan, the Council will use its CPO powers and other means to assist with site assembly where it is necessary to do so.

Monitoring and review

The effectiveness of Policy CS5: Priority Places will be measured by the following indicators and targets.

• Achievement of targets set out in the Woking Partnership Priority Places Action Plan.
• Periodic evaluations of infrastructure projects through the Annual Monitoring Report and the updating of the Infrastructure Delivery Plan.
• Regular monitoring of corporate strategies, including the play strategy and housing strategy to monitor progress against wider corporate objectives.
• The Council, with the Surrey Strategic Partnership and the Woking Partnership, will keep under review the outcomes of future publications of the Indices of Multiple Deprivation in order to ensure that the Borough's priority communities are identified.

Key evidence base

This section

Also in 4.0 Planning for places

• CS2 Woking Town Centre
• CS3 West Byfleet District Centre
• CS4 Local and Neighbourhood centres and shopping parades