Colchester City Council Preferred Options Local Plan Regulation 18 Consultation 2025

P15

The ICB is in support of this but would like to bring to the attention of CCC the work that West Yorkshire Combined Authority has done in creating a guidance document on dementia ready housing.

The number of people living with dementia in the UK is expected to double between 2025 and 2050 to almost 2 million. This is a significant challenge for the NHS and is forecast to cost the UK economy £42bn in 2024, rising to £90bn in 2040

There is only enough specialist housing to accommodate 5% of the over-65 population so designing and adapting homes to be dementia-ready makes practical and economic sense. Most people want to stay at home as they age and staying in a community which is familiar and comfortable is beneficial for health and wellbeing.

Dementia-ready housing

ECC welcomes and supports Strategic Policy ST1, which aims to ensure that health and wellbeing outcomes are embedded throughout the Local Plan, and that all proposals promote the health and wellbeing of local communities in line with the NPPF.

ECC makes the following recommendations to strengthen the policy and implementation of Health Impact Assessments: engaging prior to commencement, including C2 Use Class within HIA requirements, incorporating monitoring measures and ensuring robust processes in line with the EPOA Planning and Health Protocol.

ECC recommends reference is made to the Essex Design Guide, EPOA Healthy Places Guidance and Health Impact Assessment checklist endorsed by the Essex Planning Officers Association (EPOA). The Essex Design Guide contains extensive explanatory information and guidance on:

o Health and Wellbeing – how positive characteristics and qualities of an environment can help people to achieve and experience better quality lifestyles.
o Active Design Principles – provides guidance and a detailed checklist to guide the design (an evolution) of developments and through which to assess them in relation to health and wellbeing matters. This is included within the Essex Healthy Places guidance and checklist which has been endorsed by the Essex Planning Officers Association.
o Livewell Development Accreditation (LDA) and Health Impact Assessment (HIA) – the LDA accredits developers in recognition of their contributions to health and wellbeing. This is based on a two-stage assessment using the new HIA criteria and a review by the Essex Quality Review Panel
o Health Impact Assessment (HIA) - relevant applications will need to be subject to the guidance in the Essex Healthy Places Advice Notes for Planners, Developers and Designers to ensure health and wellbeing is comprehensively considered and integrated into Plans and Development management policies. ECC recommends that these are to be required for residential developments of 50+ homes; Any other types of developments involving 1,000m2 of new floorspace; and C2 use class developments.
o ECC Developers Guide to Infrastructure Contributions (Revised 2024) – public health matters are included in section 6.6 including advice on healthy place-making
o Reference to the need to undertake a Health Impact Assessment should be referenced in the Local Validation List.

The Health and Wellbeing Policy including the use of Health Impact Assessments should look to cover health and wellbeing in terms of the wider determinants of health and include references to matters such as:

o Contribute towards the strategic priorities of both Essex Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy to help reduce health inequalities and improve the opportunities for adults and children to live well.
o Link to Essex Joint Strategic Needs Assessment
o have good access to services and facilities to support daily life and provide for the needs of their communities including education, employment, retail, public transport, healthcare, social, community and greenspace
o be well designed to create safe, inclusive, and accessible places for all users and encourage social interaction and wellbeing
o Provides opportunities for access to services, facilities, and nature to support residents living with or affected by dementia, poor mobility, physical or sensory impairments.
o create opportunities for healthy and active lifestyles including access to and the provision of new multifunctional green and blue infrastructure, spaces for play, recreation and sports, and better active travel including provision for safe and attractive well-connected pedestrian and cycle routes to support mental health wellbeing
o provide good quality housing both externally and internally, to provide a healthy living environment now and in the future
o support the provision of cultural infrastructure and public art to create a sense of place and identity
o is climate resilient and as sustainable and energy efficient as possible to promote healthy environments
o provide appropriate mitigation to avoid harmful health impacts/emissions.
o provide opportunities for community involvement in the long-term management and stewardship of the new development
o provide opportunities for growing food such as allotments, community gardens and orchards to improve access to local healthy food
o creation of walkable neighbourhoods to support people to live healthy lifestyles having regard to the Essex Design Guide – A New Development Model for Essex
o incorporation of Sport England and National Design Guide Active Design principles
o Creation of a physical environment where people have the resilience to with life’s changes across the life course, such as a dementia-friendly environment

P12-13

Explicit bullet points under healthy, vibrant and diverse places to link back the health and wellbeing overarching theme and strategic objective with a strong focus on prevention

• “Create healthier food environments by managing the location and concentration of unhealthy food outlets to tackle obesity and diet-related inequalities” (links to policy PC1)
“Protect and enhance the environment to prioritise the prevention of ill-health and support mental and physical wellbeing”

P11-12 2.19

This will be achieved through provision of new open spaces, biodiversity net gain, and wildlife corridors to create better connections between habitats and people, supporting physical and mental wellbeing. Healthy food environments will be promoted by enabling access to affordable nutritious food, supporting local food growing initiatives, and managing the density of unhealthy food outlets. Colchester will have a real sense of community and be welcoming and inclusive—a destination of choice. Sustainable and inclusive communities will be created with a focus on diversity of place and valuing what is unique to Colchester—the countryside, coast, and city. Communities will have a varied mix of housing to meet the needs of all, including social and lower income households; and a range of jobs, including careers, that support a strong local economy and reduce the need for residents to commute outside of Colchester. Colchester's distinctive arts, culture, heritage, and tourism will improve the quality of life for residents, foster life-long learning, and boost the local economy. There will be enhanced public transport corridors and routes and an increase in active travel, reducing air pollution and promoting healthier lifestyles. Infrastructure will be future-proofed and delivered where it is needed, with innovative solutions that respond to climate change and support community health.

Greenspace and access to nature has benefits for physical and mental health. The ICB agrees that open spaces and waterways are essential components of resilient, healthy and sustainable communities and will support Colchester City Council in aiming to make these important factors with each planning application. The aim to double the amount of natural greenspace whilst trying to meet the levels of residential growth set out in the NPPF is admirable and the ICB will support this through the planning process.

In central open space developers should establish of seating in open spaces and along walkways to provide the opportunity for residents to meet and supports those who have limited mobility to rest and enjoy the surrounding green space.

This is a very encouraging statement and the ICB is very supportive of the intentions of the local plan. The ICB will continue to work with Colchester City Council to promote healthier and active lifestyles and to begin to implement the NHS 10-Year Plan.

ECC Public Health welcome and support that health and wellbeing outcomes are considered as an overarching theme and a strategic objective for the Local Plan that is embedded throughout the policies in the Local Plan.

EEAST would request the Council ensure via a s106 contribution sufficient defibrillators are provided for the new community. This should include the cost of the device, an outdoor rated heated cabinet and the associated consumables, as well as the ongoing maintenance costs for a period of 10-years (circa £,500 per device). The cabinet needs to be located where there is electrical power and sufficient footfall to provide benefits to the new community. Research indicates 800 meters is the maximum distance to fetch a defibrillator. The s106 could be allocated either to the local parish council or to EEAST.

P15

Whilst the ICB and NHS in general will always try and support communities in the most accessible locations, this is not always possible due to rurality of the region. The aim will always be to try and move services into accessible locations other factors will come into the decision-making process. The NHS has to utilise existing estate where possible through the One Public Estate process and this might not always be in the most accessible locations, but we would like to have the support of CCC on these occasions.

As per EPOA Planning and Health Protocol, ECC recommends the following additions to the policy:

A Health Impact Assessment will be required for all residential development in excess of 50 units, C2 use class, or non-residential development in excess of 1,000sqm and hot food takeaways and fast food outlets in accordance with Policy PC1, in order to demonstrate that the development would have an acceptable impact on health and wellbeing. The Council will require Health Impact Assessments to be prepared having regard to the most up to date advice and best practice for such assessments. The purpose of the Health Impact Assessment will be to identify the potential health consequences of a proposal.

ESNEFT welcomes the requirement within draft Policy ST1 for new development to support the provision of healthcare infrastructure, where appropriate, to accommodate needs in line with the Infrastructure Delivery Plan

A new Ambulance Hub is required for Colchester as the current site is too small to meet existing demand and future demand. Around 1ha of land close to the hospital is required and could be co-located with other emergency services or CCC buildings.

P15

Health partners in Essex have been involved in creating the EPOA Planning and Health protocol as guidance for LPAs and health authorities in working within the planning process. This document should be used as part of the most up to date and best practice for accessing impacts on health as well as guidance for HIAs in the county.

The HIA must:
o Be undertaken at an early stage of the planning process
o Based on the latest Healthy Places Guidance (as promoted by the Essex Planning Officer’s Association)
o Informed by current local public health data and community insight
o Used to inform the design and layout of the proposal

The scope of the HIA should be agreed prior to commencement of the assessment with development management and public health officers.

The council will require the Health Impact Assessment to be prepared having regard to the most up to date advice and best practice for HIAs. The assessment should include recommendations on how positive impacts can be maximised and negative impacts on health inequalities avoided or mitigated.

This policy should link to Place Policies which articulates a need to address specific health inequalities. ECC recommends including the following:

Development proposals across the Place Specific Policies must demonstrate compliance with both Policy ST1 and the relevant Place Policy.

ECC recommend that specific monitoring metrics are included to monitor the effectiveness of the Health and Wellbeing Policy, such as the number of HIA’s submitted and those completed to a good standard as part of the quality assurance process as per EPOA Planning and Health Protocol.

HIA should include an assessment of the impact on emergency ambulance services.

P16 3.4

The ICB agrees that all of these factors are important in creating healthy and sustainable communities and each part as important as the others. If the policies are to be successful, then equal importance needs to be put into each of the focuses so that the cumulative impact can be felt.

Quality design which builds in nature conservation helps the physical and health and well-being of residents eg interesting and varied roof lines, mental health benches, places for those with mobility issues to rest and enjoy the views (blue and green), permeable surfaces that can be used by wheelchairs, mobility scooters, pushchairs, walking aids)

P22

The ICB is supportive of this approach as in general the most accessible and sustainable locations will have significant health infrastructure already, and therefore meeting the population growth should be easier. It should be noted that there are locations might not be as desirable from a health infrastructure viewpoint as it would seem from outside, this could be due to restraints on a certain buildings, long term leases, or other factors that make strategic planning for growth difficult. The NHS 10-Year Plan aims to provide more health service in communities and this will require a strategic change for health facilities and where services are provided from outside of the acute setting.

Transport corridors need to ensure access for emergency services. CCC needs to be aware that not all services can be provided locally due to capital and ongoing revenue cost implications.

Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) support EEAST in delivering high level critical care and transportation to specialist hospitals for patients that have severe or life-threatening injuries and medical conditions. To accommodate the different airframes that operate in this region, an equivalent size of a football field would be required to support both day and night landings. This space needs to be free of overhead and ground level obstacles eg trees and overhead cables and ideally be centrally located within the development with easy road access to and from. It would be preferable if lighting was available for the helipad, but as a minimum could easily be included in developers existing plans for open, leisure or sport space.

P27 3.31

Proposing growth in areas categorised as countryside in the spatial strategy hierarchy would be problematic (depending on scale of development). The reason that developments get categorised as countryside is lack of infrastructure provision and it is unlikely that health would look to move new health services into the area. This results in a greater need for individual travel to get to appointments as the facility will not be within walking distance of development.

CCC needs to be aware that not all services can be provided locally due to capital and ongoing revenue cost implications. Therefore, support for residents in these areas need to be provided through public transport and provision of safe cycling routes. Encouraging economic growth close to where people live should include access to superfast broadband. Emergency services and visiting health/social staff are becoming more reliant on access to digital technology when working remotely.