4.0 Bassetlaw Vision and Objectives

A vision for Bassetlaw in 2037:

In 2037, Bassetlaw District will be a vibrant, prosperous place known for providing residents with a high quality of life, increased access to: quality, suitable housing, a wider range of higher skilled, well paid jobs, high quality services and facilities which promote healthy and active lifestyles within a low carbon environment.

The District will have a diverse and thriving economy, with Worksop, Retford and Harworth & Bircotes, and the Large Rural Settlements acting as employment and service centres for their surrounding rural areas. The diversity and quality of Bassetlaw’s countryside, natural and historic environment will have improved for the benefit of residents and visitors. There will be better access to the countryside and an improved range of parks and open spaces for local people to enjoy.

Bassetlaw will have successfully transitioned to a modern manufacturing, logistics and service led economy with a greater variety of more better paid, higher skilled employment available, encouraging more people to live and work in the District. The economic base of the District will have been strengthened through the fostering of new enterprise and the sustainable growth of existing businesses. All will have maintained their significance to the local, sub-regional and regional economies in terms of employment provision.

Prominent businesses in key growth sectors of: manufacturing; logistics; modern methods of construction; renewable and low carbon energy production and engineering; will be capitalising on the District’s locational advantage in terms of proximity to the A1, the A57, Sheffield Doncaster Airport and easy access to existing energy infrastructure which will have facilitated a significant shift in the District’s economic base and attracted significant investment to the District.

A significant amount of employment in the green energy and green technologies sector will have been delivered at the High Marnham Green Energy Hub and at the Bassetlaw Garden Village, putting Bassetlaw on the map as a key location for developing and promoting emerging green technologies.

New development will have been delivered in the most sustainable locations. Worksop will have sustainably grown, with new road and community infrastructure in place to support the needs of the new residents and existing communities alike. Worksop town centre and the wider area will be benefitting from the start of comprehensive regeneration and associated environmental improvements bringing with it an improved community, commercial and leisure offer to the benefit of residents, businesses and visitors.

The historic market town of Retford will have grown in a sensitive and sustainable manner, with a wider range of new housing available better suited to meet local residents needs irrespective of time in life, while a new country park, community infrastructure and connectivity improvements will enhance the town’s character, whilst the growing population will be making good use of an enhanced town centre offer, which provides an attractive base for cultural and visitor economy events. The regeneration of Harworth & Bircotes town centre will be complete: additional services will have positively added to the retail and town centre offer, while the impact of heavy goods vehicles and traffic more generally in Harworth & Bircotes will have been reduced and the environmental quality improved.

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4.14 In the rural area, the outcomes of community-led planning will be evident. Residential development within the Large Rural Settlements of Blyth, Carlton in Lindrick, Langold, Misterton and Tuxford will have been delivered to meet strategic and local needs. Necessary physical, community, green and digital infrastructure needed to support this growth will have been delivered on time.

The Small Rural Settlements will have seen small-scale, sensitively located development to support local community objectives and aspirations, to meet local housing needs and sustain village services. Communities across the District will continue to embrace neighbourhood planning, affording them the opportunity to shape the future of their environment and oversee what development takes place and where. In the wider countryside only limited development will have taken place to meet specifically identified housing needs and support long-term rural sustainability.

The beginnings of the new Bassetlaw Garden Village will be growing around a new transport hub and employment offer. This new community will provide a lifestyle choice for those who choose to live there: a healthy, active place, with the green agenda and quality of place embedded from the outset will provide a genuinely alternative destination to live and work in the future.

New housing will reflect local needs in terms of type, size and tenure and enable equality of access to suitable accommodation. Older people will have increased access to accommodation to better suit their changing needs and affordable homes will have been delivered to enable a new generation of home owners to get onto the housing ladder and to meet the needs of those unable to afford market housing for sale. New housing developments will be high quality, well designed, energy efficient and respectful of their setting in order to ensure that the character of the District’s towns and villages is maintained and protected.

New development will have helped minimise the District’s health inequalities: communities will have improved access to well designed, safe, inclusive, high quality multifunctional green and blue infrastructure close to home, active travel through walking and cycling will be commonplace, while improved recreational, sports, health and educational facilities and existing valued community services will reduce pockets of deprivation and enhance skills gaps to bring stronger health and wellbeing outcomes for our communities.

The District will have improved resilience to the impacts of climate change, new development located in areas of low flood risk and sustainable drainage systems (SuDs) will manage run-off sustainably, while increased provision and better connectivity for walking and cycling, and improved access to public transport will mean more residents can use active or sustainable travel for local journeys, reducing the reliance on the car.

Low carbon and energy efficient design techniques and use of green technologies, extensive tree planting, use of electric vehicles and alternative fuel vehicles, while also have contributed to a reduction in the District’s carbon footprint enabling the transition to a low carbon District.

4.15 This vision will be achieved by meeting the following objectives:

1. To locate new development in sustainable locations and through new settlements that respect the environmental capacity of the District, support a balanced pattern of growth across urban and rural areas, makes best use of previously developed land and buildings and minimises the loss of the District’s highest quality agricultural land

2. To provide a choice of land to ensure that the District’s housing stock better meets local housing needs and aspirations of all residents by providing a range of market, affordable and specialist housing types, tenures and sizes in appropriate and sustainable locations

3. To encourage and support sustainable economic growth by promoting a competitive, diverse and stable economy by providing the right conditions, land and premises to meet District and sub-regional employment needs and those of inward investors, while helping to create more jobs, education and training opportunities that meet local employment needs and aspirations

4. To support the sensitive regeneration of previously developed, vacant or underused sites and spaces within urban and rural Bassetlaw to facilitate their comprehensive redevelopment for housing, employment and leisure, to secure social, environmental and landscape improvements, and deliver positive amenity benefits for all

5. To promote the delivery of a new sustainable landscape-led Garden Village developed around well-connected locally distinctive neighbourhoods and spaces, which have all the benefits of quality place-making, with innovation and smart low carbon living at its core.

6. To promote rural Bassetlaw as a living and working landscape, by protecting and improving opportunities for homes, jobs, services and community infrastructure so that the District’s rural settlements continue to support their local communities, and so that quality countryside is retained but utilised appropriately

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TOWN CENTRES To support and enhance the vitality and vibrancy of town centres and local centres as places for shopping, leisure, cultural, commercial, community and residential activities, and secure their positive regeneration by promoting an appropriate mix and scale of development and environmental improvements which maximise their potential for residents, businesses and visitors alike

8. To ensure new development, places and spaces are of high quality and sustainable design which reflects local character and distinctiveness, respects residential amenity and enables people to live safe, healthy, accessible, green and active lifestyles

9. To promote healthier, active communities and help reduce health inequalities by minimising locational disadvantage, promoting healthy, active design to secure active lifestyles and travel, reduce human exposure to environmental risks to achieve equitable outcomes for all

10. To protect and enhance the District’s diverse historic built and natural environments, the distinctive separate character of settlements and their wider landscape and townscape settings, thereby recognising the important contribution heritage assets, their settings and archaeology make to securing a high quality environment and to the visitor economy

11. To protect, restore and enhance the quality, diversity, character, distinctiveness, biodiversity and geodiversity of the District’s natural environment, by creating links within and to the green/ blue infrastructure network to create a series of high quality, multifunctional, well-connected spaces, sites and landscapes that improve people’s quality of life and where biodiversity can thrive, respond and adapt to change

12. To support Bassetlaw’s transition to a low carbon District through the careful planning and design of new development, making more sustainable use of land and resources, promoting tree and woodland planting, reducing exposure to flood risk, promoting energy and water efficiency and management, minimising waste generation and promoting the use of renewable energy, low carbon and other alternative technologies, with sustainable construction methods

13. To make efficient use of the existing transport infrastructure and improve accessibility for all to jobs and facilities by sustainable and public transport, to help reduce the need to travel by car, make travel as easy and affordable as possible, both within the District and along key routes to and from Bassetlaw

14. To ensure that new settlements and new development contributes to the provision of necessary physical, social and green infrastructure to deliver planned levels of growth at the right time and to mitigate its impacts on existing communities and the environment.