Supplementary memorandum by Crawley Borough
Council (NT 15(a))
THE ROLE
OF THE
TOWN AND
ITS FUTURE
DEVELOPMENT
1. What was the original objective of
the town?
Crawley New Town was one of the "first
generation" London New Towns. It's origins were in various
war time and immediate post war committees and commissions. The
Barlow Commission 1940, the Scott Committee 1941, the Uthwatt
Committee 1942, the Abercrombie Plan for London 1944, the New
Towns Act 1946, and ultimately the Reith Committee 1947, which
was established "to consider all matters relating to the
establishment of New Towns".
The Barlow Commission—was remitted to
consider the containment of the existing urban areas and the decentralisation
of population and industry from older city areas, including central
and east London, with the objective of improving living standards,
environmental conditions and industrial and business performance.
The Abercrombie Plan had the aim of moving one
and a half million people out of London to overcome overcrowding
and poor conditions, and to foster post war regeneration. It
recommended ten new towns for up to half a million people in total,
each 20 to 25 miles from central London. Two of these new towns
were envisaged to be south of London, one south of Oxted and the
other south of Dorking.
The Reith Committee was asked to consider the
requirements for developing self contained and balanced communities
for work and living, providing modern homes and business facilities
and an un-crowded living environment with plenty of green space.
The implied objective for the new towns the Reith Committee was
asked to establish, was to lead the Country's post war industrial
recovery whilst providing the opportunity for the blitzed areas
of the cities, particular London, to be rebuilt.
The New Town Act originally envisaged 20 new
towns of which eight were agreed to disperse people and employment
from London.
There were therefore a series of push and pull
objectives for the new town:
— to provide modern homes, modern business,
good environment, with plenty of space, fresh air and self-contained
and balanced communities;
— to disperse business and population
from London;
— to allow London to recover from the
war and to provide better conditions within London;
— to use poor agricultural land and
to develop new communities with good access and routes to all
directions.
2. Which of those objectives do you
think have been met?
Modern, good quality homes—successful.
Location for modern business—successful
Good living conditions, environment and facilities
with plenty of green space—successful
Self-contained community—generally successful,
perhaps less so now.
A balanced community—not entirely so.
Predominance of younger age groups and under representation of
higher social groups.
Dispersal from London. Helping London's recover—apparently
contributed.
Use of poor agricultural land—mainly the
case.
Good accessible location. On main routes and
railway lines—yes, although location of Town Centre away
from London to Brighton Line will necessitate substantial investment
if it is to be viewed in the long term as a successful and sustainable
location.
Overall Crawley was very successful in achieving
all or originally all of the objectives set for re-development
of a New Town.
3. What do you consider to be its role
in the region/sub-region in the future?
Grafted on to an existing settlement pattern
the Town has had to create its identity and role within the region
and, even 50 years on, there are issues of perception which hamper
the full realisation of the Town's role. The reality is that
Crawley is developing a pivotal regional/sub-regional rule as
the main town and business, employment and commercial centre between
south London and the South Coast. It has far eclipsed all nearby
rival Towns and is one of about half a dozen main centres arranged
around London at between 15 and 30 miles out. The Town has the
potential to consolidate and extend its role significantly in
the future to the benefit of those who live and work here or in
the surrounding area and the Council is committed to the growth
of the town both residentially and commercially. To achieve this
potential, however, requires recognition of the Town's developing
role and a commitment from a range of government agencies to the
development of the community and transport infrastructure which
serves the area.
4. To what extent is the original masterplan
for the town still used as a guiding principle for development
and redevelopment?
Crawley is remarkable in the extent to which
the original New Town Plan and principles were adhered to in its
development as a New Town up the mid 1970s and its continued development
since that date, ie beyond the originally envisaged size for a
New Town. These principles are still pivotal in current planning
approaches;
— the neighbourhood principle, residential
areas with good local facilities;
— local green space to separate areas,
to provide shape and form to the Town and areas and to provide
outdoor recreation and leisure facilities for the residents;
— a road network developed so as to
channel traffic onto the most appropriate roads and to avoid inappropriate
traffic travelling through residential areas;
— several rings of development around
a centrally positioned New Town centre;
— separate business and industrial
areas;
— a ringed layout for the Town Centre
itself. The retail core is surrounded by other facilities, services
and public buildings.
5. How well have the old and new parts
of your town been integrated? If they have not been well integrated
what form does this take in physical/spatial terms and what are
the implications of this for the growth of the town?
Overall, older and New Town parts of the Town
are very well integrated. A few special, older areas are outside
the main structure, but most pre-New Town development has been
integrated into their respective neighbourhoods and business areas.
In fact, the pre-New Town layout which had a bypass road some
distance away from the small original town area was ideal for
creating and planning for Crawley. It allowed an inner ring of
neighbourhoods and other facilities to be developed and then beyond
the bypass an outer ring of neighbourhoods was built. The implication
of this integration of old and new is that compared with many
towns, the opportunities for radical change and re-development
have been relatively limited. There is limited room for the town
centre to grow without encroaching into adjoining neighbourhoods
and the emphasis has to be on planned extensions to the town rather
than brownfield development.
6. Has/can the town achieve the population
that was originally planned?
The original target population for Crawley New
Town was 55 to 60,000. This was achieved in the late 1960s and
has been well exceeded now. The population will exceed 100,000
in the very near future.
7. How does the age profile of your
population relate to the national average? Is this related to
your being a New Town? How do local agencies and strategies respond
to that?
The population age structure of Crawley has
traditionally been portrayed as being overwhelmingly young and
out of step with the national and regional profiles. However,
for the last few decades, the age structure has gradually been
moving towards at least the sub-regional average. It still has
a relatively young population age profile with a high proportion
of children and people in working and family age groups. The
number of elderly, particularly the 60-75 group, is increasing
fast in proportion to others. However, compared with most areas
this is still a minority group. It will probably take another
10 to 15 years before the age structure matches other areas, and
even then because of the strength of the local economy, it may
still have some bias towards working age groups.
The response of different agencies to this population
age structure has varied. Some bodies have generally responded
well. The Council has sought to tailor its services to the particular
needs of the area. The education authority is now adapting education
provision of the Town to the changing profile. On the other hand,
in some respects, the Health Service has generally lagged well
behind. The number and type of facilities and services has not
always kept up well with the demands of population growth and
change. There is a clear need for new and high quality hospital
provision. Similarly library provision has lagged well behind
demographic changes.
8. How strong is the demand for the
existing commercial land? Is there demand for further commercial
development in the town? What is the effect of commercial development
in the town on other towns in the sub-regional economy?
Looked in the long term perspective there is
strong commercial demand for location in the Borough, reflecting
in particular the locational advantages of the area. There is
however an issue concerning the attraction of knowledge based
industries and securing for the long term a varied and stable
economic base for the Town. Commercial development is a key factor
in the local and sub-regional economy and the prosperity of the
area, and is important in securing the transfer of economic benefits
from London, down the transport corridor to Brighton and the areas
of coastal regeneration.
9. Can you describe the sub-regional
planning arrangements that are in place to regulate/facilitate
development? Can you describe the strengths and weaknesses of
the current approach?
Answer not available in the time available.
10. What is the regional/sub-regional
role of the shopping centre in your town? What investment is proposed
in the town centre area in the next few years?
The Town centre now operates at a sub-regional
and possibly regional level. There has been substantial public
sector and private sector investment in the last ten years. This
investment will have to be maintained over the next ten years
if the town is to fulfil its potential to provide an accessible
and sustainable regional shopping centre. The Council has published
a draft strategy aimed at securing this.
ORGANISATIONS, REGULATIONS
AND FINANCE
11. Can you give some numerical examples
of the problems that have arisen with clawback and covenants in
housing, amenity space and other land uses?
Answer not available in time.
12. The Committee has been made aware
that in some cases clawback has made Right to Buy marginal or
even negative, in terms of receipts to the local authority. Has
this been the case in your authority, if so can you give a financial
example? What are the implications of this?
Answer not available in time.
13. Can you quantify the outstanding
liabilities facing your authority, firstly as a result of the
package of assets and liabilities transferred to the authority
at the winding up of the Development Corporation and secondly
as a result of design and other issues relating to the New Town?
Answer not available in time.
14. How does the financial value of
the liabilities caused as a result of your town being a New Town,
compare to the financial value of the remaining assets held by
English Partnerships in the town?
Answer not available in time.
15. To what extent has English Partnerships
participated in regeneration partnerships in your town?
To date there has been very little involvement.
English Partnerships or rather the CNT have tended to operate
primarily as a commercial entity, selling and developing land
and property for commercial gain. Indeed, with respect to the
few opportunities for a partnership approach, eg Broadfield Barton,
the CNT chose to opt out.
English Partnerships are however displaying
strong interest in becoming an active partner in some of the current,
new ideas for new development and regeneration in Crawley including
new neighbourhood development and development of the town centre.
16. Many of the submissions have referred
to the inadequacy of the existing SSA to reflect the needs of
the New Towns. Can you detail those weaknesses and set out any
suggestions about how any successor to the SSA could be improved?
Answer not available in time.
17. Has the pattern of ownership and
CNT/EP's role had any implication in your ability to develop a
housing strategy for the area?
Answer not available in time.
DESIGN
18. What is the balance between the
original design/materials used and lack of maintenance/resources
for maintenance in the causes of the poor housing conditions found
in some of the New Towns?
Answer not available in time.
19. Has your design led to problems
with crime? If so, have you looked at ways to design out crime?
Are there any funding streams currently available to address this
particular problem and if so how successful have you been at bidding
for such funding?
Answer not available in time.
20. What are you doing through your
Local Transport Plan to address the problems of car dependence?
Does your local Transport Plan include provision for dealing with
issues of design and layout where that promotes car dependence?
The Local transport Plan includes a "traffic
reduction strategy". This will be reflected in the Crawley
Urban Transport Plan and the Transport Strategy for the Community
to be drawn up by CBC. There are a range of elements to the traffic
reduction strategies for this area which include cycle and pedestrian
schemes and promotion, travel plans, improved public transport
at a variety of levels and forms and parking management and control
including controlled parking zones and revised standards and requirements
for parking provision. The Plan also includes Fastway, a guided
bus system, which will need development beyond the route currently
funded in order to enable a radical change in travel habits across
the whole of the Town.
The Transport Plan does not include proposals
for changing existing designs and layouts which apparently promote
car dependence. However virtually all the town centre and neighbourhood
improvement schemes which have been undertaken or are planned
have an implied and sometimes explicit objective of trying to
control car usage and dependency and promoting or facilitating
greater use of public transport, cycling or walking.
21. Have you introduced or planned any
measure to promote mobility schemes targeted at the old or the
young?
There already exists a dial a ride service and
various other forms of community transport. There is a shop mobility
scheme developed by the Borough Council and now run by an independent
basis with support from the borough and the private sector. A
safe routes to schools initiative is scheduled for 2003-04. The
local Transport Strategy for the Community is likely to include
proposals for revamping community transport services aimed at
groups which are not well served by or can not easily use existing
services and modes.
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