3) Consultation Responses

Initial Consultation: Community Views on Creswell


3.1  The Initial Consultation Exercise on a Growth Plan for Creswell ran between 1st and 30th June 2022.

3.2  This consultation exercise followed a digital, mobile first, approach that sought to engage with people in Creswell to find out what they thought about living/working in Creswell, and their thoughts on the village centre and on the wider environment.





3.3  During this exercise, 97 responses were received, although not all respondents provided answers across all four subject areas. The results are summarised below.


Living in Creswell

3.4  Out of the 97 respondents that answered this section, the headlines from the ‘Living in Creswell’ section were as follows:
  • on the whole people like living in Creswell with 80 respondents (82%) feeling ‘satisfied, good or very good’ and 18 respondents feeling ‘bad or very bad’ about living in the village. The majority felt ‘satisfied’.
  • 69% of respondents liked living in Creswell because of the good access to green space and the countryside.
  • 53% of respondents said that poor public transport was an issue.
  • 51% of the respondents did not like the quality of the village centre.
  • 42% of the respondents cited a lack of good job opportunities.
  • in terms of types of new housing, 39% of respondents wanted ‘new market housing’, 30% wanted ‘affordable homes’ and 26% of the respondents wanted ‘housing of all types for local people’.
  • 68 individual comments were made covering a variety of issues. Common themes were fear of crime and anti-social behaviour.



      Working in Creswell


      3.5        Out of the 11 respondents that answered this section, the headlines from the ‘Working in Creswell’ section were as follows:

      • In terms of why respondents liked working in Creswell, 7 respondents (64%) said it was because they ‘lived close to their job’.
      • 6 of the respondents (55%) wanted ‘more jobs in retail’ and 3 wanted ‘more jobs in leisure and entertainment’.
      • In terms of what could be done to improve respondents working lives, 6 (55%) wanted ‘more frequent public transport’, 3 wanted ‘more available car parking’ and 2 respondents wanted ‘better walking or cycling routes to work’.
      • 7 individual comments were made across a range of concerns including a lack of jobs.


      Village Centre

      3.6  Out of 28 respondents that answered this section, the headlines from the ‘Village Centre’ section were as follows:

      • In terms of why respondents liked the village centre, 9 respondents (32%) said it was because they ‘liked the variety of shops and services’, 6 said it was because they ‘liked the convenient bus stops.’




      • In terms of why respondents disliked the village centre, 17 respondents (61%) ‘disliked the poor choice of shops and services’, and 17 ‘disliked the unpleasant shopping environment’ and 16 respondents ‘disliked the limited car parking’.
      • In terms of what respondents thought could be done to improve the environment of the village centre, 14 (50%) said they wanted ‘higher quality paving and street furniture’ and 8 respondents said they wanted ‘shops to have a better appearance’


      Green Spaces, Countryside, Climate Change and Nature Conservation

      3.7  Out of the 28 respondents that answered this section, the headlines from the ‘Green Spaces, Countryside Climate Change and Nature Conservation’ section were as follows:

      • 18 respondents (64%) liked the green spaces because they were ‘good for recreational walking’; 9 thought they were ‘good for kicking a ball around’; and 8 felt they were ‘well maintained’.
      • 17 respondents (61%) disliked the green spaces due to ‘poor quality Equipped Play Areas’; 11 due to ‘poor maintenance’; and 7 respondents (25%) chose ‘other reasons.’




      • In terms of the countryside footpaths, 13 of the respondents (46%) were aware of ‘some’ walking routes’; 10 (36%) were aware of ‘lots of’ walking routes.’ 9 respondents (32%) thought that only ‘some’ countryside footpaths were of ‘good quality’.  
      • In terms of cycle routes, 12 (43%) respondents were aware of ‘some’ cycle paths, 10 thought there were only a ‘few’ cycle paths. 3 respondents (11%) felt that only ‘some’ cycle routes were of a good quality.
      • In terms of combatting the effects of climate change, 16 of respondents said ‘more solar panels’ were needed and 6 of respondents said ‘more tree planting’ was needed.
      • 15 individual comments were made across a range of environment related concerns. Common themes were lack of maintenance of open ground, poor quality of footpaths, and the need for better cycle and bridleway provision.


      Summary

      3.8  This new and more digital way of consulting people proved to be a success in that it saw greater levels of public involvement, increasing an awareness of local views. The responses from this Initial Consultation Exercise told us that:

      • Creswell is a reasonable place to live, largely because it has good access to the countryside.


      • In terms of types of new housing, most respondents wanted new market housing, followed by affordable homes.
      • A lack of good job opportunities was one of the main reasons given for why people did not like living in Creswell.
      • Poor quality public transport is an issue. 
      • Feelings about the village centre aired on the side of ‘satisfied, to very bad’. None of the respondents felt ‘very good’ about it. An unpleasant shopping environment and a poor choice of shops and services were given as reasons.
      • To improve the village centre, large proportions of respondents said that a higher quality of paving and street furniture was needed followed by the shops having a better appearance.
      • Respondents felt that Creswell has good green spaces and countryside footpaths and cycle routes but that all could be improved.
      • To combat the effects of climate change, a significant number of respondents said that ‘more solar panels’ and ‘more tree planting’ was needed.
           

          3.9  The responses received to the initial consultation revealed that overall, people like living in Creswell. The most positive reason chosen was good access to green space and the countryside. However, when wider opinions were expressed, this revealed issues in Creswell with respect to anti-social behaviour. Respondents however praised the community spirit of the village.

          3.10  In terms of employment, consultation responses revealed that Creswell is seen as a place with limited employment opportunities. Jobs within the village and access to jobs further afield are an issue. Some respondents stated a link with this and the anti-social behaviour issues.

          3.11  Concern was expressed that the village centre looks run down and lacks variety, that it could benefit from more businesses including independent shops and better parking.

          3.12  In contrast, respondents felt generally positive about the green spaces in Creswell and the access to the countryside around the village. From the responses received it is apparent that green spaces make an important contribution to the quality of life in Creswell and provide both social and environmental benefits. Maintaining and improving green spaces in and around the village was considered by many as a priority.


          Second Consultation: Community Views on Creswell

          3.13  The second stage of consultation focussed on masterplanning and sought to find out what the people of Creswell and other stakeholders thought any potential growth in Creswell could look like.





          3.14  To enable this public engagement to take place, the Council worked in partnership with The Future Fox, a PropTech digital planning company, to develop a new, innovative Masterplanning digital planning tool. This work was funded using money from the Government’s PropTech Innovation Fund.
          3.15  The digital planning tool helped participants explore how large development sites are designed, what features or components they could include and to appreciate the trade-offs between elements that generate income for the developer such as housing/employment developments and those that cost money such as infrastructure.

          3.16  One of the sites around Creswell that had been promoted to the Council through the Land Availability Assessment ‘Call for Sites’, namely the area of land to the north-west of Creswell, was chosen as the ‘blank canvas’ for the masterplanning exercise.




          3.17  Respondents had a wide range of land uses that they could add to their Masterplan. They could add as many or as few land-use tiles as they wanted. The tool also included a financial element so that respondents could explore how some land uses were ‘Income Uses’ whereas others, namely ‘Infrastructure Uses’, have an overall cost to being delivered. Respondents were encouraged to ‘balance the books’ and so explore the trade-offs when planning for new development. This financial element was included to give a sense of realism to the creation of the masterplan and to make explicit the connection between income generating growth and the cost of infrastructure provision.


          3.18  Over 725 people used the Masterplanning digital planning tool. In all 127 formal submissions were received showing the types of land uses that people thought any growth in Creswell should include. The table below shows the total number of tiles placed by land use type from all 127 submissions.

           

          Income Uses

              No

                Infrastructure Uses

            No

          Market Housing 

          163

          Roads 

          206

          Shopping Area

          83

          woodland

          149

          Offices

          72

          Nature Sites

          79

          IT Workplaces

          71

          Green Space

          77

          Social Housing

          67

          Solar / Wind Farm

          62

          Eco Homes

          63

          GP Surgery

          59

          Total Income Uses

          519

          Leisure

          56

          Western Park

          38

          Sport Playing Pitch

          37

          Skills College

          30

          Primary School

          29

          Recycling Centre

          29

          Total Infrastructure Uses

          851

          3.19  In participating in the masterplan consultation, some respondents achieved the balance of infrastructure cost with the necessary associated growth, whilst others did not. Not all respondents chose to ‘balance the books’ with respect to infrastructure and growth. In those cases, the Masterplan submissions primarily comprised only environment related infrastructure, effectively stating a wish for ‘no growth’. In all cases the respondents’ choices have enabled the Council to better understand the community’s priorities.

          3.20  In terms of income generating land uses, as can be seen from the above table, Market Housing was the most frequently chosen. Employment-based items (Offices and IT Workplaces combined) were the second most popular income generating uses after housing reflecting the importance people placed on employment in creating balanced growth. In terms of infrastructure, ‘Woodland’ was most significant in its popularity, followed by ‘Nature Site’ and ‘Green Space’. In this analysis, the choice of Roads as the top Infrastructure Use, is considered not to reflect a preference of those that undertook the exercise, more a reflection of the understanding of roads as being necessary.

          3.21  To accompany the masterplan submissions, a range of written responses were received.

          3.22  Those respondents that were against further growth in Creswell, were generally of the view that the residential growth to date in the village has not led to improved/increased levels of infrastructure provision.

          3.23  Respondents that were more ambivalent about growth often mentioned that it had a negative impact on the natural environment of Creswell. A view that was reflected in the masterplan submissions with natural environment land uses featuring highly on infrastructure priorities.



           

          3.24  Where respondents supported growth in principle, they had the same concerns as those that were against growth, that growth had to translate into necessary infrastructure provision and environmental improvements. Effectively a balance of growth and nature.



          Feedback: Community Event


          3.25  The third public engagement was to provide feedback to participants and local stakeholders. In this, the Council worked in partnership with Digital Urban, a company that creates 3 dimensional digital recreations of places and virtual reality experiences.

          3.26  The responses to the masterplan exercise were translated by Digital Urban into a virtual reality version of Creswell. The digitised Creswell showed the consolidation of recent and already planned growth together with potential new employment uses. As well as recent and proposed new housing, the range of recent and planned infrastructure was also shown, including the health centre. The environmental improvement project, Bolsover Community Woodlands was shown with the trees animated as growing over time.

          3.27 On 27th July 2023, 109 people participated in the virtual reality balloon ride over Creswell at the Heritage and Wellbeing Centre. The feedback from the event focused on the usefulness of using virtual reality as a way of understanding Creswell in a different way. The use of virtual reality was well received by the attendees and anecdotally was found to help bring the housing, employment, and infrastructure proposals to life. The event brought forward a strong feeling of community pride.

          3.28  The feedback from all three stages of public engagement has informed the choice of potential options in taking forward the preparation of a Growth Plan for Creswell.



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