Local Plan - Preferred Options Consultation Document (Reg18)

4 Healthy Places

Improving Health and Wellbeing

4.1Spatial Planning and health and wellbeing are intrinsically linked. Health and wellbeing are fundamental priorities, encompassing both physical and mental health. Good health is important not only for individuals, improving quality and length of life, but also for communities, as it underpins social cohesion, mobility and prosperity. There is longstanding evidence of the complex relationship between health and the wider determinants of health, including the environments in which people live, work and play. Health and wellbeing objectives include ensuring people start well in life, stay well, and age well. Planning plays a vital role in preventing ill-health, improving health and wellbeing, and reducing health inequalities shaped by socioeconomic factors and the built and natural environment.

4.2The Tendring Health and Wellbeing Strategy, the Sport and Activity for Tendring Strategy, and the Essex Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy set out priorities to address the wider determinants of health, including physical activity, housing, skills and employment, and social isolation, through a collaborative, place-based approach. The Essex Design Guide also emphasises health and wellbeing, with its ten health focused areas including: access to open green and blue spaces, encouraging active travel, energy efficient homes, supporting communities, inclusive communities, environmental sustainability, promoting access to healthy food, skills, and employment. Tendring District Council is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of our residents and communities by promoting more active and healthier lifestyles, creating healthy living environments and reducing health inequalities through projects such as the Livewell accreditation scheme.

4.3Tendring has the lowest life expectancy in Essex for both men and women. Healthy life expectancy is a key public health measure that estimates the average numbers of years a person born today can expect to live in “good” health, considering both illness and disability. There is a disparity of more than 25-years in healthy life expectancy in Essex, with Clacton Central at 51.7 years, compared to Billericay Northeast at 75.2 years. The percentage of physically inactive adults in Tendring in 2023/24 was 24.2% which is higher than both the Essex and England averages.

4.4Diseases linked to physical inactivity are major contributors to the life expectancy gap between different socioeconomic groups. By focusing on increasing physical activity levels in deprived communities and embedding healthy placemaking principles, we can help reduce this gap.

4.5Policy HP1 promotes good health and seeks to prevent ill health. Placemaking has an integral role to play in ensuring that people can make healthy choices in their day-to-day life, whether through active travel, such as walking, wheeling and cycling, or through the provision of accessible green spaces. Our policy aims to create environments that support healthy lifestyles. By integrating health considerations into planning and development, we can foster communities where individuals have the resources and opportunities to maintain and improve their health.

Managing the Location of Hot Food Takeaways

4.6Research shows that frequent consumption of food prepared outside the home is associated with a range of poorer health outcomes. Meals from hot food takeaways often contain higher levels of salt, saturated fat, and calories than meals prepared in domestic settings, which can contribute to long‑term health conditions such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. National guidance recognises the role that the local environment plays in shaping dietary habits, particularly for children and young people.

4.7In Essex, there are on average 69.5 fast food outlets per 100,000 people, with notable variations across districts. Tendring has the highest density, at 96.3 per 100,000, while Rochford has the lowest, at 25.7 per 100,000. A high concentration of hot food takeaways in certain neighbourhoods can influence eating patterns, particularly in areas that children and young people regularly pass through or spend time in.

4.8To support healthier neighbourhoods and limit the concentration of hot food takeaways in sensitive locations, Policy HP1a seeks to reduce the clustering of hot food takeaways near places where children and young people congregate. It also requires proposals in other areas to demonstrate, through proportionate assessment, that they will not give rise to adverse health, environmental, or community impacts.

Community Facilities

4.9Community facilities (sometimes referred to as community assets) provide for health and wellbeing, recreation and leisure, and education, and culture. They can include, for example, community halls, libraries, museums, arts venues, post offices, public houses, places of worship, sports halls, health and fitness facilities, swimming pools and other facilities of community value including police, fire & rescue and ambulance facilities. They are a key part of sustainable communities and contribute to their self-reliance.

4.10It is important that local communities are supported by a range of community facilities as they provide local employment opportunities, are a focal point for community life and can help reduce the need for people to travel long distances for essential goods and services. These facilities can also provide an opportunity for socialisation and reduce loneliness and isolation of residents within the local community.

Retention, Improvement and New Community Facilities Provision

4.11The loss of community facilities can have a substantial impact on people’s quality of life, wellbeing and the overall vitality of the local area. With the growing number of older people in Tendring District, access to locally based facilities will become increasingly important to ensure sustainable communities.

4.12The Council will expect new development to retain, and where possible, improve existing local community facilities. It is important that these are integrated into the design of new development where possible.

4.13For existing community facilities, the Council will work with its partners to secure future improvements and will protect them against redevelopments for alternative uses, particularly housing. Public houses, in particular, perform a useful social role in rural communities and are a source of local employment. They frequently occupy historic buildings and make a significant contribution to the character of the locality. The Council will therefore seek to protect these important assets.

4.14The viability of community facilities is an important consideration for a sustainable local area. Planning applications that would result in loss of community facilities should be accompanied by marketing information to show why the existing use is not viable and information to show why the facility is no longer needed by the community it serves or that the facility is being suitably relocated to meet local needs. Further guidance on this can be found at Appendix E.

Assets of Community Value

4.15Part 5 Chapter 3 of the Localism Act 2011(the Act) provides for a scheme called ‘assets of community value’. This requires district and unitary councils to maintain a list of ‘community assets’. It has also become known as the ‘community right to bid’.

4.16Under the Act and through the Community Rights to Challenge and Build, parish councils, voluntary groups, neighbourhood forums, and other community organisations can consider the opportunity to develop or establish new community facilities. Local groups have the right to nominate a building or land for listing by the Council as an Asset of Community Value.

4.17The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) paragraph 98 states that planning policies and decisions should:

• plan positively for the provision and use of shared spaces, community facilities (such as local shops, meeting places, sports venues, open space, cultural buildings, public houses and places of worship) and other local services to enhance the sustainability of communities and residential environments;
• guard against the unnecessary loss of valued facilities and services, particularly where this would reduce the community’s ability to meet its day-to-day needs; and,
• ensure that established shops, facilities and services are able to develop and modernise and are retained for the benefit of the community.

Open Space, Sports and Recreation Facilities

4.18The National Planning Policy Framework (Annex 2) defines open space as ‘all open space of public value, including not just land, but also areas of water (such as rivers, canals, lakes and reservoirs) which offer important opportunities for sport and recreation and act as a visual amenity'.

4.19The Council’s Open Space Strategy (2017), prepared by Knight, Kavanagh and Page Ltd, identified the following typologies of open spaces across the District:

• parks and gardens;
• natural and semi-natural greenspaces; and
• amenity greenspace.

4.20Amenity space including:

• provision for children and young people;
• allotments;
• cemeteries/churchyards; and
• playing pitches and outdoor sports facilities.

4.21The above typologies are protected by Policy HP4 and are shown on the Policies and Local Maps collectively as Safeguarded Open Space. The Neighbourhood Planning process allows Town and Parish Councils or other nominated bodies to identify open spaces of particular local value as ‘Local Green Space’ which are afforded an additional level of protection, ruling out new development other than in very special circumstances. In line with the requirements of the National Planning Policy Framework, this additional level of protection can only be applied to green spaces where they are in reasonably close proximity to the community they serve, are demonstrably special to the local community and hold a particular significance and are local in character, rather than an extensive tract of land. In Tendring, Local Green Spaces are designated through adopted Neighbourhood Plans, and the Alresford, Ardleigh and Elmstead Neighbourhood Plans each include policies identifying and protecting Local Green Spaces within their respective areas.

4.22Open Spaces in towns and rural areas are essential in improving public health, well-being and quality of life. Attractive, safe and accessible parks and green spaces contribute positively to social, economic and environmental benefits and promote sustainable communities. Major new housing and mixed-use developments should include new and improved access to schools, to enable children to walk or cycle from their homes.

4.23Well-used and maintained open spaces make considerable contribution to the quality of life of residents and visitors and promote sustainable communities. Each type of open space has various benefits, for example parks for recreation and play and social events, children’s play and playing pitches for formal sports events and allotments for growing produce.

4.24It is important to provide a balance between different types of open space in order to meet local needs. For example, not all residents living in every area will have a demand for open space in the form of playing pitches or allotments. In some areas there will be a specific local demand for ‘green corridors’ such as nature walks or bridleways.

4.25The National Planning Policy Framework, Planning Policy Guidance and the North Essex Strategic Plan, Section 1 of this Local Plan provide a context for the protection of existing open space. The NPPF (paragraph 74) suggests that existing open space, sports and recreational buildings and land, including playing fields should be protected unless:

• an assessment has been undertaken which has clearly shown the open space, buildings or land to be surplus to requirements; or
• the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity, quality and in a suitable location; or
• the development is for alternative sports and recreational provision, the needs for which clearly outweigh the loss.

4.26Cemeteries, churchyards and burial grounds represent a distinct element of the District’s wider open space network. As spaces that fulfil important cultural, ceremonial and environmental roles, they require careful long‑term planning to ensure they remain respectful, accessible and well‑integrated within local communities. Unlike more recreational forms of open space, burial land has specific operational and design considerations, including landscape character, groundwater protection and future capacity for expansion. Policy HP4 therefore sets out a specific approach to the protection, management and creation of new burial spaces.

4.27The Tendring Open Spaces Strategy sets locally specific standards for the quantity, quality and accessibility of different types of open space across the District. New residential and mixed‑use developments are expected to contribute towards meeting these standards, either through the provision of new open space or by enhancing existing provision where this would deliver the greatest community benefit. Contributions may be secured on‑site or off‑site, depending on the scale of development, local needs and the availability and condition of existing facilities.

4.28Policy HP5 establishes a tiered approach to the provision of open space as part of new development. All schemes are required to make proportionate contributions, while larger sites of 3 hectares or more must also provide on‑site public open space. The minimum proportion of open space required increases with the size of the site, ensuring that major developments deliver a balanced mix of play space, allotments, sports facilities and informal recreation areas. On‑site open space must be usable, well‑designed and appropriately located within the development.

4.29Although the evidence base identifies deficits in some open space typologies, addressing these solely through new provision can be challenging, particularly where land availability is constrained or where new facilities would not significantly improve accessibility. Accordingly, the Local Plan encourages a pragmatic approach that prioritises enhancing the quality, connectivity and usability of existing spaces, ensuring they remain accessible and fit for purpose. Opportunities to improve walking and cycling links to existing open spaces are strongly supported.

4.30Within the ‘parks and gardens’ typology, it is important to recognise that sites vary significantly in scale, character and function. Larger “destination” parks, such as Marine Parade West in Clacton, provide extensive recreational facilities and attract visitors from wider catchments. Smaller, more formal sites, such as Fronks Road War Memorial, offer localised amenity and contribute to townscape quality and heritage.

4.31Destination parks often serve more urban areas and may compensate for quantitative shortfalls identified in certain localities. As such, a simple comparison with national benchmarks does not always provide an accurate picture of provision. When considering local needs, accessibility, quality and the role of each space within the wider open space network are essential factors.