Draft Greater Norwich Local Plan – Part 1 The Strategy

Para 34: The para links the increasing proportion of older people to increased pressure on residential and care home settings, the emphasis should be emphasised on the broader Health system rather than just tertiary care. The increase pressure on Primary and Secondary care capacity will continue; therefore the importance of living in an environment that promotes and supports a healthy, active lifestyle is key to the prevention of physical and mental health factors that impact on health and wellbeing.

Para 39-41 do not appropriately represent Health and Wellbeing priorities but put a disproportionate emphasis on crime prevention. Suggested input:
make no mention of increased impact on health system of ageing population or link to HWB Priorities:
○ 1 - Single sustainable system - consideration of how a good quality built environment contributes to positive health and social care outcomes, can improve community development functions
○ 2- Prioritising prevention - an environment that promotes physical activity improves physical and mental health and wellbeing, reduces the risk of contracting many long term conditions and also manages their impact on lifestyle. Link to priority areas for prevention in HWB plan.
○ 3 - Tackling inequalities in communities - Parts of Norwich have significantly above average levels of deprivation, impacting on social mobility and resulting in low attainment. Better living conditions, improved accessibility to green infrastructure and community space contribute to improved connections and is an important factor in reducing inequalities
○ Integrating ways of working - increasing numbers of people living longer will increase demand. Linking the GNLP outcomes to Norfolk's Integrated Care System and Promoting Independent Programme is important to meet the increasing demand on Health and Social care services.

In order to reinforce the importance of integrated, sustainable transport, it is suggested that a hierarchy of sustainable transport image is inserted at para 66... 1. walking and wheeling, 2.Cycling, 3. Public transport, 4. Taxis and shared transport, 5. Private car.

There is no reference made to walking connectivity as a policy priority (Active Design principle). This should be included with reference to a priority to access green space and community assets by walking.

Para 101-102: improving the design of existing green spaces, particularly country parks and urban parks, is important to promote active uses and limit the impact of excessive use of sensitive ecological areas as the population increases.

Para 109: The vision statement prioritises economy over people - this does not feel right. Why not explicitly link appropriate elements of the Norfolk County Council Plan core outcomes: Thriving People, Strong Communities and Growing Economy? Para 110 addresses some of this, but this is not the Vision - these are described as outcomes of the vision.

Inclusive growth cannot be achieved by simply growing the economy (Marmot 2010), it requires a system approach attributes to the 3 outcomes described above.
Marmot's most recent publication (10 years On) highlights some particularly important observations that highlight the importance of 'place' in peoples health:
- People can expect to spend more of their lives in poor health
- Improvements to life expectancy have stalled, and declined for the poorest 10% of women
the health gap has grown between wealthy and deprived areas, place matters.

para 117: '-which will in turn reduce the need to travel' - this statement is misleading; the needs to travel remains; the rest of the paragraph explains this better but the opening statement should be changed. Suggested amendment 'the promotion and implementation of Active Design principles (Sport England) will reduce dependence on motor vehicle travel and improve active travel options.

Para 121 - a reference to Active Design is recommended: 'Homes will have been built at appropriate densities, Active Design principles will be applied to promote active lifestyles, function and style will respect and enhance local character and to meet the needs of all in mixed communities.'

Support and agree with comments in para 126.

There are some excellent recommendations in the TCPA's State of the Union - reuniting health with planning in promoting healthy communities that will amplify the Policy 2 commitments. https://www.tcpa.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=cb4a5270-475e-42d3-bc72-d912563d4084. Particularly Page 35 diagram - an integrated approach to planning for health and wellbeing.
A commitment to work jointly with healthcare partners to ensure the commitments within Policy 2 contribute to addressing local health needs in a targeted, insight led approach. The use of Active Design principles to guide the implementation of Policy 2 would be appropriate.

Providing suitable alternative natural green space such as county parks is important to offset the impact of increased population on SSSI areas and protect biodiversity, but country parks alone cannot reduce the impact on sensitive natural habitat. The accessibility of country parks will greatly impact on who and how people use them. If they are only accessible by private car, then the parks will be less used by the population demographics who are most in need of improved access to green space.
A separate, complementary emphasis on improving the quality of small green spaces adjacent to dense population centres should be incorporated. Tools such as Greenkeeper (http://www.greenkeeperuk.co.uk/) are good to help prioritising factors that increase public use of GI and provides a value for money assessment of upgrade options. Improving walking and cycling access, frequency of seating areas, access to toilets is one approach; 'wildscaping' can be equalling successful in creating an attractive environment that encourages greater community use.

Linking references should be made to the newly commissioned review of the GNGB Sport and Facilities strategies which were last published in 2014. The work is being implemented through the Greater Norwich Sports Strategy Implementation Group and will develop a new collaborative and insight led approach to planning and delivering strategic outcomes for sport and physical activity using Sport England's Strategic Outcome Planning Guidance.
https://sportengland-production-files.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/sopg-full-document.pdf?6LHbT31bSjHLqpLB944hucyPTAWiU0wi