Maldon District Today

The Maldon District today, key settlements and main roads map

The LSP commissioned Essex County Council to complete the most up to date data available about the district in September 2009. In order to update our knowledge about the Maldon area. Two issues stood out as being of particular importance: accessibility and skills and training. The rural district of Maldon covers an area of approximately 56 square miles (36,000 hectares) in East Essex. The District has over 60 miles of coastline that includes the estuaries of the Rivers Blackwater and Crouch, but complex processes of erosion, reclamation and the creation of salt marsh have limited the development of settlement on the open coast of the District facing the North Sea. The main towns are Maldon and Burnham-on-Crouch. The area has strong associations with fishing and coastal trading, and more recently sailing. While many of the small rural villages owe their origins to the agricultural economy, they were also linked to coastal settlements and quays from where their produce was shipped to provision London.There are three distinct areas within the District: the Maldon and Heybridge area, the Dengie peninsular and the Rural North. The majority of the population (estimated at 61,700 in mid 2006) is located in the first two of these areas, with over a third of the population concentrated in the urban areas of Maldon and Heybridge.In a recent survey of ‘Quality of Life in the 21st century’ the Maldon District was ranked 53rd out of the 376 English Local Authority Areas. However, the very characteristics that make the District so attractive - its isolation, the salt marshes and the estuaries, the attractive small towns and villages, the winding country lanes and the lack of large scale industry - can give rise to difficulties for the people who live and work within the District and can lead to inequalities and the marginalisation of some groups.The attractive nature of the District has been one of the factors that has helped the population to grow over the last few years by encouraging people to move into the area: the population has increased by nearly 28% since 1985, more than twice the rate of the overall growth in Essex and four times the national average. This figure is expected to increase over the next few years. The largest migration group are couples and young families and people aged 25-44. The largest numbers of incomers to the District come from Chelmsford and Greater London.Many of the challenges facing the District arise from what is happening in the rest of Essex and the South East more generally. The County is facing massive growth in areas such as the Thames Gateway, the Haven Gateway, and the M11 corridor and also Chelmsford and Colchester. Thousands of new homes and jobs will be required to meet this demand and the proposed development will be accompanied by significant investment in new infrastructure, such as roads, schools, hospitals, and utility supplies. The Maldon District itself is not part of the major growth agenda. The Regional Planning Strategies recognise the unique character of the District and it has been agreed that there should not be any major development in this area. Therefore, this means that the challenges facing the future of the District are far more subtle than that of large scale development. One of the consequences of the development occurring elsewhere is that our area may not attract significant infrastructure investment, which will be directed to the growth areas.All areas of Essex will face a growth in the numbers of older people, but it is predicted that Maldon will experience the largest change in dependency ratio in the County. There will be a nearly 50% drop in the ratio of working age people to older people. This equates to just over 2 people aged 15-64 years for every person aged 65+ by 2029 compared to around 4 people aged 15-64 years for every person aged 65+ in 2004. In the Maldon District it is estimated that by 2016 53% of the population will be 65+. The numbers of people over 80 are likely to increase still further as incomers bring their elderly parents into the District to be near them in line with a trend that has already been observed.The demands of the older population for care facilities and services, and carers for support, will be made more expensive and more difficult to deliver by the isolated nature of some of the District’s rural communities. The network of country lanes that link the towns and villages combined with inadequate public transport can make it difficult for those without their own transport to access services. Accessing health services and facilities has been identified as a particular problem in surveys: travelling to health facilities particularly those outside the District for treatment or visiting family members in hospitals outside the District (visitors are not covered by hospital car service) can be difficult. While this particularly affects older people, perhaps no longer able to drive, it also affects all age groups. Young people, without access to their own transport, experience difficulties accessing education (colleges), work and social activities especially outside normal working hours.The 2007 Indices of Deprivation highlight these problems: six of the District’s Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) are in the bottom 10% of all LSOAs in England and Wales for barriers to housing and services deprivation. LSOAs 006A (Mayland Ward in the Dengie area) and 001B (Tolleshunt D’Arcy ward in the Rural North) score particularly highly as areas of deprivation for barriers to housing and services with Mayland ranking 200 in the country and Tolleshunt D’Arcy 615.The District is linked directly to the A12 by the A414 and the B1019, but most of the District is connected by a network of country lanes. The idyllic setting provides a surprising backdrop to figures for road deaths and injuries that are substantially worse than the average for England.Whilst the District still retains much of its rural character, some aspects of the local economy have changed as parts of the District become attractive bases for commuting to the county town of Chelmsford or to London, despite modest rail and road links (16.1% of working residents commute to Chelmsford and 11.9% to London). Consequently there has been a growing gap between the income levels of local workers and those who commute. The economy of the District is defined by large numbers of small businesses covering a wide range of business sectors. However, there are significant larger firms and specialist concerns operating within the area as well. The area is generally prosperous, but there is a serious skills shortage and aspirations are low. The District has the highest proportion of working age population with no qualifications (32.8% compared to 17.3% in Essex, 14.0% in the East region and 13.8% nationally). The 2007 Indices of Deprivation demonstrate that education, skills and training deprivation are concentrated in parts of Maldon and Heybridge (Maldon East and Heybridge West wards) and in the Dengie (the wards of Southminster, Burnham-on-Crouch North and part of Althorne). Four of these LSOAs, Heybidge West, Maldon East, Southminster and Burnham-on-Crouch North, are ranked as the most deprived wards in the District for the indices of deprivation.The potential development of a new nuclear power station alongside the decommissioned one at Bradwell in the Dengie peninsular would radically increase demand for accommodation, services and skilled workers, in addition to placing strains upon the existing poor infrastructure particularly in the construction phase. It is anticipated that up to 2,500 workers would be expected to be employed to build the new power station if it is approved with 600 workers based at the station when it is fully operational (expected 60 year life). Even if immediate permission was to be granted for the development of the site it would be several years before construction could begin, but it is important to bear in mind this major potential development and the impact it would have across the District.Access to suitable housing of a decent standard plays a significant role in people’s overall health and well-being. The growing income differential between commuters and local workers is reflected in the housing market: many homes are now priced beyond what local workers can afford whilst still comparatively affordable in comparison to some other parts of the county. Since 2000, the average house price has risen by 100% in Maldon District. Recent survey work has revealed that 85% of existing households in housing need cannot afford to buy and 73% cannot afford to rent in the market. The current slow down in the housing market and the fall in prices is unlikely to significantly change the affordability situation in the Maldon area as incomes lag behind those in other parts of the county. Maldon District contains around 26,000 households with over 80% households owner occupied and only 11% of housing is provided by registered social landlords.The Maldon District has small numbers of groups that are characterised as minorities. The area has the smallest percentage of non white minority ethnic groups in Essex at around 3% of the population and has witnessed the one of the lowest level of inward migrations of workers for Essex at just over 200 migrant workers registrations (4% of overall Essex number). There are two registered sites for the travelling community in the area at Woodham Walter and at Tolleshunt Major.Overall life expectancy is high but there is still a great deal of scope for improvement in health and well-being. For example smoking and obesity are still widely prevalent, and only a minority of the population meets physical activity guidelines. There are substantial inequalities within the area, with major differences in life expectancy and social care use within the District. Men in the most deprived areas die on average 1.5 years earlier than the men in the least deprived wards, while for women this difference in life expectancy is 3.7 years demonstrating the link between levels of deprivation, low educational and skills and health and well-being. There are also possible differences based on ethnicity. For example, in common with other areas in the country, children from mixed or Asian backgrounds living in the District are more likely to be eligible for free school meals, which may indicate that these groups are more likely to suffer from deprivation and ill health. Tackling health inequalities will help achieve a more equitable position in the District and will also help improve overall population health and well-being. Most people however, as mentioned above, are not concerned so much with health inequalities based on gender, deprivation or ethnicity, but instead with improving the current health care facilities and access to health care services and this has been recognised as a challenge for the District given its rural nature.Maldon is one on the safest districts in the country with crime levels substantially lower than both Essex and national averages, but people are still worried about crime and antisocial behaviour and make it one of their most important priorities for improvement. Building stronger, more active and safer communities is important for the District as it seeks to build on its sense of independence and self-reliance and to prevent its communities from becoming soulless dormitory settlements or places with a disproportionate number of older people struggling to access services and maintain the quality of their life. There is a need to develop balanced communities with opportunities for people to be involved in shaping the place where they live.One of the District’s main attractions is its natural and built environment. Not least among the challenges that the area faces is the need to reach an appropriate balance between conservation and economic growth and to manage the potential impact of climate change. Flooding is a major issue in an the area given that so much of the District is low lying and where a serious flood would inundate large swathes of the land including the principal industrial area at the Causeway in Heybridge and residential areas in Heybridge, Mayland and Burnham-on-Crouch as well as many more smaller and isolated settlements. Reducing our detrimental impact on the environment and enhancing and preserving the landscape which has done so much to shape the District and its people is high on residents’ agendas.

Members

People

• Megan Davies Contact through email. Tel.01621 875821

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