Residential Population continued

2c. Health and wellbeing

Access to open spaces will continue to be critical to the delivery of a comprehensive health and wellbeing offer. Better utilising existing resources such as Grosvenor Park, The River Dee, the meadows and the racecourse, could be considered.

Establishing an authentic health and wellbeing offer across the city will serve to engender a feeling of ownership and proprietorship between local residents in the city whilst also breaking down barriers between residents and some of the cities built heritage which at times feels “offlimits“ to residents of the city.

To coincide with structural changes to the high street and opportunities for change, the Council may want to consider the clustering of health, wellbeing, and beauty enterprises to coincide with emerging healthy living agendas. This would create a destination within a destination and secure the benefits of agglomeration

C ycling and other active transport options should be bolstered within the City.

A comprehensive joined up and easy-toaccess cycle network should be delivered across the city, which should build upon the existing networks that are already in place.

It should be noted that wayfinding for this network should be improved as it is not yet sufficient for mainstream usage.

Colour-coded routes have been used to good effect in other parts of the Country; however, something more self-evident may be appropriate in this instanceestablishing routes such as open “the Chester Zoo route”; “The University Route”, “The River Route” etc. might be more appropriate given the number of visitors coming to the city.

This initiative needs to be linked into the wayfinding and signage/branding strategy for the city to create coherent and legible cycle routes throughout the city.

Opportunities for bike hire should also be explored across the city to create a series of linked spaces where bicycles can be hired and returned. This could be linked into an extension of the Ginger Scooter network that has already been established with good success within the City, catalysing on an existing population embracing the gig-economy and infrastructure to create a more joinedup offer that caters for varying means of active travel.

Work is already underway between the University and the council to work collaboratively to secure joint interests across Chester.

The University should be engaged in a meaningful way and should become involved in the renaissance of the city.

In reality this could mean being a key stakeholder for the One City Plan refresh and sharing its growth plans with the Council to ensure that the regeneration of the City is undertaken with the University’s aspirations in mind.

Opportunities for a City Centre campus should be considered as part of this work. This could be supported by a range of student residential development.

Such a campus could serve to supercharge post-Covid economic recovery of the city whilst driving forward a younger, dynamic demographic within the city over the longer-term.

This would also boost student retention rates for Cheshire West & Chester.

It is critical that housing growth correlates to realistic job growth aspirations. Through the refresh of the One City Plan, the spatial strategy for Chester should ensure that sufficient employment provision is coming forward to accommodate and serve an increased residential population.

The delivery of employment provision should be cognisant of new ways of working and appreciative that traditional employment provision is not universally attractive and may not cater to the needs of Chester’s future labour force. This may include delivering such provision as co-working space and studio space for creatives on flexible, short-term rents. Notwithstanding a need to cater to new ways of working, quality, traditional office space should also be delivered to cater to employers looking to relocate to Chester to take advantage of its growing labour force and revitalised City Centre.

E xploring opportunities to accommodate business ventures and start-ups originating from the University of Chester would be a direct way of cultivating and consolidating relationships with the University and increase Chester’s ability to retain its student population as residents within the City following their studies.