Community Plan

Why have a plan?

Wotton-under-Edge is in a prosperous area of the country, close to and benefiting from cities such as Bristol and Gloucester. It is far enough away to have kept its identity so far. This however faces us with a dilemma. How do we remain a strong supplier of local services, keep our identity and avoid becoming a satellite town? This is a dilemma faced by many other similar market towns and the Countryside Agency has developed a Healthcheck process to help deal with this. This process helps towns like Wotton-under-Edge to identify their strengths and weaknesses and so provide the evidence upon which to build the Wotton-under-Edge Community action plan. This plan identifies the actions needed to achieve a vision for Wotton-under-Edge which, in brief, is to be a vibrant, healthy and sustainable town.

Determining a priority order from the results obtained has not been straightforward and several methods were tried, including weighted scores, totals by priority and percentage scores.

Where does it cover?
The plan covers Wotton-under-Edge and that surrounding area which looks to Wotton-under-Edge as a provider of local services. This area stretches from Hawkesbury Upton in the south to North Nibley in the north and from Rangeworthy in the west to Kingscote in the east.

What is the Wotton-under-Edge Regeneration Partnership?
The partnership represents all those who have an interest in Wotton-under-Edge and its future. A wide range of organisations are part of the partnership and all are welcome to be involved. It is important that the plan is the consensus view of the community.

What do we want to achieve?
To have a plan it is essential to know what that plan aims to achieve. This aim is encapsulated in the ‘vision’ which has seven themes covering the environmental, economic, social and transport needs of the town. The vision is ambitious, some elements will be difficult to achieve. The partnership has felt however that it is important for Wotton-under-Edge to aim high.

Theme 1
Wotton-under-Edge will make full use of its high quality historic centre and its outstanding surrounding countryside. The town will be clean and green, an attractive place to live, work and visit. It will continue to be a lively, working, changing town. Change will be managed to maximise the environmental potential. The appearance of the town and its gateways will be enhanced and more public spaces created.

Theme 2
Wotton-under-Edge will continue to be a town with significant commercial activity and local employment. The town will be a service centre for the surrounding area and will also provide specialist services for a wider region. Constraints to economic activity will be resolved. The growth of Wotton-under-Edge’s built environment will be constrained by the existing boundaries. Wotton-under-Edge will provide food retailing, professional, commercial and community services which meet the needs of the community. In addition, the specialist goods and services will bring in work and customers from a wide area.

Theme 3
More facilities will be provided for visitors, including good quality accommodation and places to eat. It will be easy for visitors to travel to Wotton-under-Edge. Tourism growth will however, be balanced against local needs.

Parking Action Plan
Lack of adequate parking provision is a constraint to Wotton-under-Edge achieving most of the vision themes. Solving this problem is therefore seen as the single biggest contribution to the vision overall. There are three strands to this plan:

• First maximise the appropriate use of the existing car parks to
make it easier to park.
• Second modify those policies which exacerbate the problem.
• Third assess the need and feasibility of providing additional off street parking.

To maximise the use of the existing car parks effectively they may need to be controlled and policed. Charging is one way to achieve this but the charges would have to be low to avoid deterring shoppers and visitors. The aim is to consider these proposals.

Current planning policy restricts parking provision for new developments and makes a bad situation worse. The partnership will work to achieve a reversal of this policy.

While we know and have evidence to show that there is a parking problem in Wotton, we don’t know the scale of the problem or the cost and practicability of solving it. The actions therefore involve an initial investigation into the need and a search for potential new locations, their cost and practicability. It is only after this has been done that we will identify specific projects and seek support and funding.

Economic
This action plan deals primarily with the need to encourage new business to retain and improve the economic vitality of the town. Food retailing is the main attraction for shoppers and this underpins other retail activity. The perception that Wotton is a good place to shop needs improvement and actions to achieve this are detailed in the plan.

The formation of a Chamber of Trade was seen as a major element of the plan. It is pleasing to see that this has already been achieved in advance of publication of the plan.

Environment
Three strands of activity are identified in this action plan:
• Improvement in street cleaning
• Creation of open spaces
• Enhancing the appearance of the town

Wotton already has an excellent environment which is only spoilt by a few untidy areas. Actions are identified to improve maintenance and help tackle untidy places. Specific actions aim at creating small public gardens or courtyards and enhancing the townscape.

The Forward Plan for Wotton under Edge and the surrounding area is the culmination of consultation and detailed information gathering. We now have a living document divided into action plans with time scales and costings. Some of the actions have already been achieved, like the Electric Picture House Cinema and Under the Edge Arts Group and these are continuing to develop. Other actions such as Youth Liaison are on-going, with improvements being made and grants being sought, to enhance provision for young people. We now have an active Chamber of Trade where there was none, organising events and communicating with shops and businesses. Momentum has to be maintained and as events happen, other projects will replace what has already been achieved.

I am aware that some of the big issues will take time and money to resolve. We need confidence to create success and take a dynamic approach to resolving problems.

The Regeneration Partnership will continue to involve the community, promote the Action plan to all stakeholders, publicise the unique town of Wotton-under-Edge and enhance its environment.

June Cordwell
Chairman, Wotton-under-Edge Town Regeneration Partnership