Parish Accessibility Audit

HEATHFIELD PARTNERSHIP

PARISH ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

March 2007

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Policy Context

2.1 Policy Development

2.2 Policy delivery

3. Current Provision

3.1 The Area

3.2 Public Transport

3.3 Existing Community Transport

3.4 Accessibility Maps

4. Demographic Profile

4.1 Parish level data

Information provided by East Sussex County Council, CensusInside

4.2 Output Area Statistics

5. Surveys

5.1 Initial Sift

5.2 Questionnaire

6. Consultation

7. Overall Analysis

8. Recommendations

Appendix 1 – Distribution of Respondents with Mobility Problems

Appendix 2 - Access to Services

Appendix 3 - Comments provided by questionnaire respondents

Appendix 4 – Solutions sought by Respondents

Appendix 5: Taxi Companies in Heathfield and surrounding area

Heathfield and Waldron Parish Accessibility Audit

Executive Summary

i)Introduction

The Parish Accessibility Audit for Heathfield and Waldron was carried out as part of an accessibility audit programme for Parishes throughout East Sussex, supported by East Sussex Rural Transport Partnership (RTP). The Audit used the Parish Accessibility Audit model and tools developed by the Countryside Agency. The audit was undertaken by Heathfield Partnership working in conjunction with officers of the RTP.

The audit involved:

Establishment of a Steering Group, facilitated by Heathfield Partnership and made up of representatives of the Heathfield Partnership, Parish Council, Red Cross, Age Concern and the East Sussex Rural Transport Partnership
A background review of existing policy documents, research, census data, local directories, existing transport services, topography, etc
Circulation of a questionnaire to Parish residents
Face to face and telephone consultation with key stakeholders; ie County Council, RTP, Transport Providers
Face to face and telephone consultation with residents and local organisations

ii)Analysis

The audit identified the following key issues:

Access to a car is considered essential by many and some believe the current levels of car ownership mean increased bus services would not be viable
However, there are 11% of the population that have no access to a car and 38% that have access to only one car
There is some informal car sharing and the existing Age Concern shopper and social car scheme services are important to older people with mobility difficulties
Needs are thought to exist in particular amongst older people, young people, non car owners, non drivers and those wanting/expecting to reduce their car use
Existing public transport provision is considered at best patchy, even to/from HeathfieldTown and in the outlying, parts of the Parish it is non existent
There are particular issues accessing facilities not available locally (especially Hospital, Town Centre shopping, College and other facilities in Eastbourne)
There are also needs to access non hospital based health services (Dentist, Opticians, etc)
Services that would allow students to stay behind for after school activities would be welcome
Access to rail services is a common demand
Improvements to existing bus services are also called for (improved reliability, increased evening and weekend services, improved connections, etc)
A service enabling access to HeathfieldTown from the surrounding villages was sought by many, with some associating this with the need to develop a community transport service for the area
A focus on Heathfield town was also thought to facilitate access to links to other places from there
Improvements to pavements and safe off road routes for walking and cycling are sought
There are opportunities to build on the existing Age Concern and Linked Hands services and to support development of Community Transport through links with the Easylink group
Improved information on the services available is required
There are opportunities to influence delivery via the ESCC accessibility strategy

iii)Recommendations

The following recommendations are made to address the above issues:

Heathfield Partnership should work with the County Council and RTP:

To seek amendments to the existing 52 bus service to Eastbourne and Tunbridge Wells, including

-Later return/s from Eastbourne

-Later return/s from Tunbridge Wells

To extend the operating times of the 318 service to start earlier in the morning and to run throughout the afternoon and early evening

To increase the frequency of existing bus service provision, improve connections (to other bus and rail services), address behavioural issues of passengers, improve driver training and improve the accessibility of buses;

To improve off-road routes for cyclists and pedestrians;

To provide input to the Access Strategy, LSP proposals for transport;

To review linkage with the Local Area Plan.

Heathfield Partnership should work with the RTP:

To join the North Wealden Community Transport Partnership

To build on and co-ordinate the existing Easylink and Age Concern transport services to provide a local, accessible, Community Transport/door to door service, to facilitate:

-Access to HeathfieldTown from the surrounding settlements

-Improved access to rail stations, especially for commuters

-Bespoke Youth Bus/Evening leisure Bus

-Group transport hire service for community groups

To build on existing Age Concern car scheme and liase with other nearby schemes; ie Mayfield, to the North of the Parish

To increase the volunteer drivers available to the Age Concern social car scheme

To examine funding opportunities to support community transport (ie RDA, Rural Renaissance, ESCC, District Council, Local Trust, Sponsors, Southern Trains, Heritage Trust, Parish Funds/Precept, etc);

To ensure new service concepts are understood ie Community Transport/door to door service should be for all without access to transport not just older people or the disabled.

Heathfield Partnership should work with the District and Parish Council:

To provide an increase in the facilities provided locally, ie consider introducing a mobile shop and mobile youth club;

To provide a home delivery service

Heathfield Partnership should work with the County and Parish Council:

To promote all public and community transport services and ensure information on these is available in local outlets, parish newsletter, parish website (both Parish Council and Heathfield.net), via local community networks, etc.

Heathfield Partnership should:

Monitor and review progress on the above on an annual basis

Heathfield and Waldron Parish Accessibility Audit

1. Introduction

Alongside guidance for undertaking the audit, the tools used provided for an initial sifting exercise to asses the overall situation in the Parish, a questionnaire for circulation to residents and manual analysis tools for these. Separately, there is also a spreadsheet available to enable electronic analysis of questionnaires. ‘Sifts’ were undertaken for each settlement in Heathfield. Questionnaires were circulated to residents in general and targeted to specific groups thought most likely to face exclusion. Analysis was undertaken electronically, using the spreadsheet available.

Alongside the use of these tools the audit also included:

Establishment of a Steering Group, facilitated by Heathfield Partnership and made up of representatives of the Heathfield Partnership, Parish Council, Red Cross, Age Concern and the East Sussex Rural Transport Partnership
Meetings of the steering group

-at inception – to plan the audit

-part way through research – to check progress, identify and fill any gaps

-following analysis - to discuss results and potential proposals

-on completion of a draft report – to comment on this before production of the final report

A background review of existing policy documents, research, census data, local directories, existing transport services, topography, etc
Face to face and telephone consultation with key stakeholders; ie County Council, RTP, Transport Providers
Face to face and telephone consultation with residents and local organisations

The outputs of research, consultation and analysis are described in the following report, together with recommendations for actions to address the issues identified.

2. Policy Context

2.1 Policy Development

Local Transport Plan

Context

The Local Transport Plan (LTP) provides the local transport policy context within which the Parish Accessibility Audits should be considered. The first LTP produced covered the period 2000 to 2005. The second covering 2006 to 2011 was submitted to government in March 2006. The key aim of LTP2 is to deliver the national and local Government’s shared priorities for transport:

Tackling congestion
Delivering accessibility
Safer roads
Better air quality, and
Quality of life

The LTP2 considers how investment in local transport can contribute towards the Council’s own corporate objectives, the objectives of the East Sussex Community Strategy and those of the local strategic partnerships, statutory development plans, the current and emerging Regional Spatial Strategy, the Structure Plan, Local Plans and emerging Local Development Frameworks. The LTP2 also illustrates how local plans will contribute towards the wider agenda at a national and regional government level, including the Regional Transport Strategy.

Vision

The vision for the LTP2 is:

‘To make East Sussex a thriving County where every resident enjoys an enhanced quality of life with improved travel choice and access to employment opportunities and local facilities; safer and healthier communities and a cleaner environment that is valued, protected and improved for future generations.’

Objectives

Its key objectives, each of which are given equal priority over the life of the plan, are to:

Improve access to services by providing greater travel choices and influencing land use decisions
Manage demand and reduce the need to travel by private car
Improve road safety and reduce fear of crime in communities
Reduce congestion and improve the efficiency of the transport network
Protect, promote and enhance the environment
Improve maintenance and management of the transport network

The LTP Strategy for transport in the County provides the framework for the Council, working with its partners, to deliver the vision and objectives of the Plan. The strategy is influenced by the wider agenda – European, national, regional and local policy frameworks of spatial, transport and economic strategies.

Accessibility Strategy

As part of the overall transport strategy in LTP2, the County is required by Government to develop an accessibility strategy.

Accessibility is about the ability to access key facilities that we need quickly, easily and at a reasonable cost. Accessibility is not just about transport. It can also be affected by the location, design and delivery of services. Improving accessibility is important for everyone, but is particularly important for disadvantaged or socially excluded groups and communities, for example those who do not have a car or who live in an area of high social deprivation.

The Wealden Local Strategic Partnership Community Strategy, “Wealden Voices: Wealden Choices” also identifies Transport and Access as an issue for residents of the area. The vision for the Transport and Access theme is:

“to improve accessibility for all and reduce the impact of traffic on people and places.”

The Accessibility Strategy sets out the County Council’s overall vision, objectives and strategy for improving access to the following key services:

Employment
Education
Healthcare
Healthy affordable food; and
Other local priorities

Based on use of mapping software (Accession) supplied by government and ongoing consultation with a wide range of partners (health bodies, employment agencies, education facilities, community organisations, etc) this is intended to map the current levels of accessibility to services and facilities throughout the County and identify the desired solutions to shortcomings in accessibility (accessibility hot spots) that are required.

As part of the accessibility planning process the County Council will be developing ‘local accessibility action plans’ which provide detail on how specific identified accessibility problems will be tackled at the local level. The County has proposed that the development of the local accessibility action plans will be facilitated through the East Sussex Strategic Partnership and Local Strategic Partnerships to ensure that they are contributing towards the achievement of the Community Strategy objectives. The local accessibility action plan for the Wealden area will be researched during 2007 and therefore the Parish Transport Audit can be regarded as directly complementary to the development of the Accessibility Strategy and in particular the local accessibility action plans.

The Parish Accessibility Audit should also be regarded in the context of the local Heathfield Town Healthcheck. The Healthcheck process is designed to help local communities find ways to assess and improve the vitality of their town and surrounding countryside. It is a tool developed by the Countryside Agency, and is in use across market towns in England. Heathfield carried out a Healthcheck in September 2003 and one of the objectives identified was an accessibility audit. Alongside this objective, actions identified include working with ESCC and the community to bring attention to the most pressing transport issues and plan for improvements, and relating any planned improvements to the Local Transport Plan.

It should also be noted that the report “An investigation into the unmet needs of Heathfield and its surrounding rural area”, prepared for the Red Cross, has been taken into account. This report, whilst not investigating the situation in detail, concludes that transport and access issues are of paramount importance to the residents of the parish.

2.2 Policy delivery

The work on the accessibility strategy to date has identified accessibility in rural areas and access to education and employment as the key priorities that need to be tackled. In order to deliver its LTP strategies the County plan to implement them at a local level through five different mechanisms:

Local Area Transport Strategies (LATS);
‘Rural Transport’ Approach;
‘Transport Corridor’ Approach;
Safety Schemes; and
Maintenance Schemes

The Heathfield Local Area Transport Strategy (LATS) was adopted in January 2004 and contains much complementary information to this process. The LATS aim to reconcile all modes of travel and competing demands for the movement of people and goods, in a way that best meets local needs. The LATS consider all modes of transport within a ‘geopgraphical defined’ area and identify the role of each mode in respect of others, to produce a balanced package of measures to address local transport problems.

The LATS for Heathfield was prepared in partnership with Wealden District Council and Heathfield and Waldron Parish Council together with the Heathfield Partnership Trust. The development of the LATS was informed by the establishment of a local transport forum, in identifying transport problems and the schemes and measures to help address these issues.

The LATS is guided by the following vision:

“To improve travel choice, safety, and access for all people who live in, work in and visit Heathfield and its satellite villages, and to facilitate economic and community regeneration.”

The LATS has its focus on improving travel choices and improving safety of all road users and sets out a programme of works for delivery over a 10 year period. The programme of measures identified will be delivered within the Small Towns Package of the County Council’s LTP. A number of the schemes from the LATS have been implemented or are currently in development:

Improvements for pedestrians and quality of footway materials in Heathfield High Street, including upgrading of existing crossings

Improvements for pedestrians and quality of footway materials in Station Road

Improvements for pedestrians near Newnham Way and at Hailsham Road/Tower Street/Station Road signals

Introduction of a right hand turn lane at the A265/A267 junction

Improve traffic movements at the Cross-in-Hand junction

School safety zone and area wide traffic management scheme for the Tilsmore area and Cross in Hand Primary School

Improve pedestrian access to HeathfieldCommunity College and AllSaints & StRichardsPrimary School

These elements of improving travel choice and safety will obviously have an impact on the residents of Heathfield and Waldron Parish. The Parish Accessibility Audit will seek to uncover whether there are other transport or access needs that are not being met, and whether there may be potential to amend or introduce services to meet those needs.

The Parish Accessibility Audit will have an important role to feed into future monitoring of the impact of these measures.

The Rights of Way Department at East Sussex County Council have been consulted and there are currently no issues relating to Rights of Way in the parish that will impact on this project.

The Cycling Officer at East Sussex County Council has been consulted and there are two main issues that are currently impacting on the possibilities for travel by bicycle in and around Heathfield. The first is the link between the end of the Cuckoo Trail and the town centre and possibilities to improve this link. The second is the link between the town centre and the area east of the town where both HeathfieldCommunity College and the Leisure Centre are located.

3. Current Provision

3.1 The Area

The Parish of Heathfield and Waldron is located in the District of Wealden in the County of East Sussex and has a population of 11,404 (correct at 2001 census). The map below identifies the town of Heathfield and its surround area: