CONTENTS
2.3 History and Natural Features
2.4 Local Issues and Demographic Information
1.0 Introduction
Site analysis promotes understanding and explanation of design decisions by defining the positive, neutral, and negative factors affecting an allocated area (Ouf & Makram 2019, p.8). The focus of this report is Llanwern Jigsaw Site, Figure 1, in the eastern part of Newport city Centre. The development plot’s location is northwards from Llanwern Steelworks, which closed in 2002. Welsh Government (2016, p.4) indicated that this greenfield got allocated for residential purpose in the 2011 development plan. It should provide room for 200 housing units.
Methods selected for this site analysis process include place visits and evaluation of the relevant secondary data. Issues of importance include current usage of land, transportation and accessibility, history of the development plot and its surrounding, and local issues or demographic details. The goal of assessing these factors is to determine how they support or limit the chances for developing the area.
Figure 1: The Jigsaw Site
Source: Digimap (2022)
2.0 Site Appraisal
The section provides detailed information about the assets and liabilities of the development station that developers should consider before commencing the designing process.
2.1 Existing Land Use
The Jigsaw site is a greenfield area that lies between Hartridge Wood and Dockwell Wood. The Dockwell Wood’s length is 3.1 kilometres while Hartridge Wood covers an area of 8.03 hectares (Woodland Trust 2022). Dense woodland and grassy sections cover the entire place, and extends up to Llanwern Gold course. Figure 2, below, shows the greenfield and its surrounding.
Figure 2: Green Spaces within Jigsaw Site and its Environs
Source: Google Maps (2022)
Hartridge Wood and Dockwell Wood are green spaces that make the Jigsaw plot suitable for housing development as they provide space for recreational activities and sports (Jabbar, Yussoff & Shafie 2021, p.8). In the Jigsaw plot, Llanwern Park and Golf Club fulfil this role. Again, grassy points next to Dockwell Wood and Hartridge Wood have footpaths that residents and visitors could use when exercising or walking their dogs. Exercising enhances mental, physical and psychological well-being.
Beyond the green spaces, residents have access to schools and institutions. Figure 3, below, shows the examples of land use near the Jigsaw site.
Figure 3: Forms of Land use in the Surrounding Areas
Source: Google Maps (2022)
Development plot residents with primary school-going children could enrol the students at Ysgol Gymraeg Casnewydd, which has a capacity of 380 children (Locrating 2022). Other thers may attend Llanwern High School, which can accommodate 1,450 students (Llanwern High School 2022). Individuals with interest in horse riding could as well train at Ponderosa Equestrian Centre and Llanwern Village Institute is best for communal activities. Q Consulting Limited is also available for the health-conscious residents that would like advice or guidance of consumption of food and beverages. Residents that follow the Christian faith can access St. Mary’s Church for prayers and other devotional practices.
2.2 Transportation and Access
Well established roads, streets, bus stops, networks for motorway, systems of national rail or public transport access are not available in the designated area and its immediate neighbourhood. The plot is a greenfield and is surrounded by woodlands. However, footpaths cross the area to allow individuals who go to exercise or walk dogs access the place. Figure 4 shows the footpaths.
Figure 4: Footpaths leading to the Jigsaw Plot
Source: Google Maps
The main public transport system in the region is Southern Distributor Road (A48). As shown in Figures 5, Southern Distributor Road experiences fast traffic except in the sections close to the two roundabouts.
Figure 5: Roads and Streets in the Site’s Surrounding
Source: Google Maps (2022)
Southern Distributor Road has trails for biking. The green lines in Figure 6 show the trails. A bicycle-friendly road also exists near the roundabout. Luckily, the region is free from any dirty and unpaved trails.
Figure 6: Networks for Biking
Source: Google Maps (2022)
Based on Figures 5 and 6, the construction of roads or streets that connect the allocated housing ground and the Southern Distributor Road is necessary for improved accessibility. Fortunately, Welish Government (2016a, p.3) plans to convert A48 Pont Ebbw Roundabout into a ‘through-about’. The new road design will have a new link that connects the eastern and western sides of the Southern Distributor Road. However, Welish Government should arrange for additional internal transportation systems. Wolny (2016, p.6) explained that an internal road for communicating with the public road makes an estate more valuable. The author added that accessibility of transportation increases chances of developing a plot because concentration on building increases when the city centre is more accessible. Improvement of transportation links and existence of the best local transportation network could, thus, result in rapid development of new settlement in the place.
2.3 History and Natural Features
Llanwern Jigsaw Site is an ancient semi-natural woodland, located in Ringland (Newport City Council 2013, p.24). Ringland’s location is closer to the greater industrial area in the Eastern part of Newport. Traditionally, steel workers and families occupied this part of Newport (Ringland Prifile 2017, p.10). The development site also lies between two Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC), Hartridge Wood and Dockwell Wood (Newport City Council 2013, p.24). These are marked as LL1 and LL3 in Table 1, below.
Newport City Council (2013,p.6) explained that authorities referred to the Guidelines for Selection of Wildlife Sites in South Wales and only confirmed them to be SINC after realising that they met objectives of the criteria of Wildlife Sites Guidance Wales. Welsh Government expects developers to clearly present the impacts that their activities have on the features of the designated area. When the planned development has a potential to affect the designated settings, the general rule is that developers should avoid harming the stated interests. If developers cannot avoid harm fully, they should minimise effect by deploying mitigation measures (Newport City Council 2013, p.5). Welsh Government (2016, p.4) reported the Moreover, the national planning policy indicates that compensation is essential to prevent losses to nature conservation.
Table 1: Harttridge Wood and Dockwell Wood as SINC
Source: Newport City Council (2013, p.24)
Flooding:
Ringland Profile (2017, p.67) reported that flooding is among the most frequent natural disasters that affect homes and interfere with businesses in Wales. Additionally, Ringland is among the wards whose properties face greatest risk of surface water flooding. In the presence of Liswerry Pill Reen, however, flooding in Ringland is no longer a major threat. Geograph (2022) identifies Liswerry Pill Reen as the drainage channel that moves excess water from the surrounding into River Usk through Spytty. Below is a picture of Liswerry Pill Reen.
Figure 7: Liswerry Pill Reen as a Drainage Channel
Source: Geograph (2022)
2.4 Local Issues and Demographic Information
Welsh Government (2016, p.4) indicates that Llanwern Jigsaw Site lies in Ringland ward. The demographic information and local issues investigated in this study, therefore, belong to Ringland. A comparison with its immediate neighbourhood wards, including Llanwern, Liswerry, and Langstone, helps to understand the real situation of the development station. Table 2 compares the demographic data from Ringland, Liswerry, Langstone and Llanwern with the entire Newport averages.
Table 2: Demographic Information of Ringland, Llanwern, Langstone, Liswerry, and Newport
| Ringland
| Llanwern
| Langstone
| Liswerry | Newport |
Population size | 8,351 | 3,637 | 4,730 | 13,539 | 151,485 |
16-64 years of age | 57.8% | 63% | 61.61% | 64.06% | 62.3% |
Children in low-income families | Over 40% | Below 24.3% | 5.3% | Higher than 24.3% | 24.3% |
Educational attainment (Foundation Phase) | Below 88.3% | 86.2% | Above 90% | Above 87% | 88.3% |
Health (Bad/very bad) | 11.5% | 7.4% | 4.5% | 6.1% | 7.4% |
Crime rates in 2016 | 66.7 | 63.0 | 58.95 | 105.4 | 86.4 |
Anti-social behaviour (per 1,000 people) | 62.4 | 38.6 | 27.7 | 68.3 | 56.2 |
Fire incidents out of 10,000 people | 64.3 | 91.6 | 20.8 | 78.4 | 58.2 |
New House Prices | £137,221 | £220,459 | £325,062 | £150,392 | £183,683 |
From Table 2, above, the lower rates of criminal activities and reduction in fire incidents in Ringland are conducive conditions for housing development. The lower house prices and significant size of working age population also support housing development as more people will be willing to purchase homes or rent apartments in the site. However, the higher rate of anti-social behaviour is a constraint.
Demographic/Local Issues
Population:
Ringland has the second largest population (8,351), out of the four wards. The 2015 mid-year report by Ringland Profile (2017, p.9) showed that 57.8% of the population are of ages 16-64, 22.2% above 65, and 20% below 16 years. The statistics make Ringland the ward with lowest working age population. Langstone comes second with 61.61% (Langstone 2019, p.3) followed by Llanwern at 63% (Llanwern Profile 2019, p.8) and Liswerry at 64.06% (Liswerry Profile 2019, p.3). The averages of population ages 16 to 64 in both Llanwern and Liswerry surpass the Newport rates, which is 62.3%.
Economic Well-being:
The percentage of economically active working age adults in Ringland does not reach the Newport average. Unemployment rates here also exceed both Newport and Wales averages (Ringland Profile 2017, p.10). Over 40% of children from Ringland ward’s Lower Layer Super Output Areas 2,4 and 5 belong to low income households.
Ringland Profile (2017, p.20) states that the value exceeds Newport and Wales’ averages at 24.3% and 20.5%, respectively. Based on Table 2, Ringland has the largest proportion of children in low-income homes and Langstone has the lowest 5.3% (Langstone Profile 2019, p.20). Llanwern has second lowest poverty rates with percentage approximately half that of Newport and Liswerry is third with rates above Newport average.
Education:
Ringland’s educational achievement for both Foundation Phase (ages 5 to 7) and Key Stage 2 (7-11-year-olds) are lower than Newport average (Ringland Profile 2017, p.28). On the other hand, the performance of Llanwern’s Foundation Phase is two points lower than that of Newport and Key Stage 2 exceeded Newport’s rate by 8.3%. Liswerry and Langstone averages are as well above Ringland’s with over 87% and over 90%, respectively.
Health:
Ringland has the highest cases of health issues, as 11.5% people consider their health to be bad or very bad compared to 7.4% in Newport. Again, 28.5% of people in Ringland versus 20.8% in Newport reported that illnesses limit their activities (Ringland Profile 2017, p.37). Unlike Ringland, average of population that considered their health to be bad or very bad in Llanwern equals that of Newport at 7.4%. Again, Llanwern Profile (2017, p.37) showed that only 21.1% of Llanwern residents compared to 20.8% in Newport and 22.7% in Wales reported stated their activities were limited by illness. In Liswerry, 6.1% of the population considered their health as bad or very bad and only 4.5% people reported similar issues in Langstone.
Safety:
Crime rates in Ringland rose from 64.8 to 66.7 per 1,000 population between 2014 and 2016 but the rates are lower than Newport’s average, which increased from 77.34 - 86.37 (Ringland Profile 2017, p.44). Similarly, crime rates in Llanwern stayed below Newport even after rising from 48.3 to 63.0. Crime levels in Liswerry exceeded those in Ringland but Langstone’s averages were much lower. Anti-social behaviour also declined from 63.3 to 62.4 but these figures remain higher than Newport averages at 54.4-56.2 (Ringland Profile 2017, p.45). The 2016 antisocial behaviour statistics for Langstone were greater than Liswerry but Llanwern and Langstone had lower values.
In every 10,000 individuals, fire incidents addressed by the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) declined from 110.4 in 2012 to 64.3 by 2016 (Ringland Profile 2017, p.48). Unfortunately, the figure is still higher than Newport average 58.2. Fire incidents in Llanwern are, however, above Newport even though the levels dropped from 77.6 to 58.2 (Llanwern Profile 2017, p.48). On the other hand, FRS only attended to 20.8 fire incidents in Langstone and 78.4 in Liswerry is the year 2015-16.
Housing Market:
Ringland’s average property prices are less than Newport’s. New home owners pay a premium of 9%, second hand houses cost £125,996, and people pay £137,221 for new homes (Ringland Profile 2017, p.53). The premium paid for new building is lower in Llanwern, at 4%. However, the prices of second-hand and new houses are higher in Llanwern than Ringland at £211,631 and £220,459 (Llanwern Profile 2017, p.54). As shown in Table 2, the market prices in both Liswerry and Langstone are higher than in Ringland.
3.0 Conclusion
Development of the Jigsaw Site poses no risks to the local communities or private assets. Although the development procedures must cause loss of existing vegetation, the procedure is not fully restricted, developers can compensate the relevant authorities. Factors that support housing development in this location include the presence of green spaces and ease of access to community facilities such as schools, employment centres (including Llanwern Park), a church, and training institute.
Low crime rates, reduction in fire incidents, higher percentage of working age population, and lower costs of second-hand and new houses also support development of the area. Poor transportation networks and increase in anti-social behaviour are, however, constraints that developers should prepare to address. Statistics such as low educational attainment levels, higher unemployment, growth in numbers of low-income families, and poor health indicate existence of development opportunities in the site and its environs.
