Consultation

Local Residents Survey

On behalf of Centros, Halogen organised a postal survey of residents living in the vicinity of the development site**. The areas surveyed included the De Vitre Street area, Bulk Road, Freehold and the Bath Mill estate, St Leonard Gate and Moor Lane.

The map on the right highlights the survey areas in yellow:

1,164 questionnaires were distributed to households around the site and 301 questionnaires were returned in total, meaning a response rate of nearly 26% was achieved.

Respondents were asked a range of questions to establish how often and when they visited the city centre, their method of transport to the city centre and their views of the proposed development - see separate questionnaire.

A summary of their responses is as follows:

• 96.4% of residents are frequent visitors to the city centre, visiting weekly or more often (with 51.8% being daily visitors).
  
• The main reasons given for visiting the city centre was for non-food shopping (77.1%), with food shopping (58.5%) and leisure (47.5%) being other main reasons for visits.
  
• The most popular mode of travel to the city centre was by foot (96.0%), car (9.3%) and bike (6.3%). [NB: Some people ticked more than one answer box, which is why these percentages do not add up to 100.]
  
• 84.7% of those surveyed also said they visited the city centre in the evenings, with 31.6% saying they were regular evening visitors and 15.0% saying that they never visited in the evening.
  
• 69.1% of respondents said that they would welcome a pedestrian route to the city centre over the canal, through the site and over Stonewell (12.3% said that they would not and 13.3% said they did not know).
  
• The main issues highlighted by respondents as primary concerns for the development were traffic/congestion (18.6%), parking (14.3%), and retail need/impact (18.3%).
  
• Some people also expressed their fears about the inclusion of pubs/vertical drinking (6.3%); the loss of local businesses such as the garage and the Post Office (5.3%); and the loss of the Musicians’ Co-operative (8.0%) and other cultural facilities. [NB: From the start of consultation, Centros has expressly excluded pubs and bars from the scheme, has promised to provide new premises for the Musicians’ Co-operative and the dance studio; is working with The Dukes and The Grand theatres to enhance their facilities; and is engaging with all the small local businesses on the site to organise and pay for any necessary relocations to suitable new premises either within the scheme or nearby.]
  
• A range of other concerns were also recorded, though each amounted to less than 5% of the respondents.
  When asked about the types of uses that should be included in the development, people suggested the following: [NB: this was a multiple choice question and the following percentages are of the whole sample of 301.]
  
• Leisure/cultural quarter: 72.8%
  
• Open space: 57.1%
  
• Shopping: 36.5%
  
• Housing: 33.6%
  
• Parking: 30.9%
  
• Small workshops/industrial units: 24.9%
  
• Offices: 8.6%
  

The sample of householders covered all age groups: 16-24 year olds = 6.6%; 25-34 = 16.6%; 35-44 = 25.2%; 45-54 = 15.6%; 55-64 = 14.6%; over 65 = 17.3%. 36.2% of interviewees were male and 58.8% female. Not all respondents chose to disclose their age or gender.

Single person households accounted for 29.9% of the sample; two person households formed 34.6%; three person households 15.9%; four person households 11.0%; and five or more person households 4.8%.

24.9% of households did not run a car; 50.8% had one car per household, 16.6% had two cars; and 1.0% had three cars. No households had more than three cars.