Strategy Action Plan
The action plan below includes all schemes from the Central Lancashire technical documents which are either high or medium priority. These include all sites which score low quality but high value in the open space assessments. These sites are not all in Council ownership, many are managed by private developers, housing associations or Parish Councils. Chorley Council will support the action plan delivery either as lead partner or in partnership with the identified stakeholder. This engagement may not necessarily include the provision of capital funding, some require the council to provide more of a supporting or enabling role. KKP identified some schemes which did not require any support or involvement from the council and so for these, the council only has a monitoring role. Some sites could simply look at altering the current management specification. The actions identified by KKP as low priority actions (many of which refer simply to ‘ongoing maintenance’) have been excluded for now and will be reviewed as part of the ongoing review of this action plan. Where costs are indicated these are estimates as for many of these schemes, it is only upon detailed design/specification will exact costs be confirmed. KKP applied a matrix of indicative costs to schemes as low (less than £50k), medium (£50k -£250k) and high (£250k and above).
It must be emphasised that delivery of many of these schemes is reliant on the availability of the necessary capital funding, which generally comes from external sources such as developer contributions (section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), which are proposed to become Infrastructure Levy (IL) with rates set by the Government linked to the financial value of the development, subject to the proposals in the Planning For the Future White Paper. It is intended that Infrastructure Funding Statements, to be brought in at the end of 2020 will make planning contributions more transparent. Schemes will also be funded by external funding grants from sources which include national funding bodies such as the Football Foundation and Lottery.
The delivery of some of the projects also requires cross reference with other Council priorities and strategies. For example the CCTV strategy which defines the principles where future investment in CCTV will be considered. These are sites with historic Issues, concern from partners, high footfall areas, anti-social behaviour and if funding is in place. The bye-laws for Open Space also should be considered.
Owing to the strategy action plan being delivered over the years of 2020 – 2036 the projects are listed where possible in a rough order of deliverability with longer, ongoing projects towards the back of the action plan. Projects will be delivered as fast as possible although this is very much linked to availability of finance, demand and partnership working. Finance is being collected towards the site enhancement where possible from developer contributions. Project delivery as well as other funding streams are being investigated. Delivery will be brought forward should funding become available sooner. Completed projects are marked with an * at the start of the project name.
Chorley Council will seek to engage from an early stage in the design process with each parish council, residents and as appropriate local facility management committees, landowners and/or stakeholder groups in all discussions about the need for investment, how each space might be used and managed and during implementation to develop local ownership, interest and respect for the different types of open space provision.
New projects will be added to the OSSR over the lifespan of the strategy as sites are reassessed. Sites which are not currently in the Action Plan will be reviewed and scored in line with a standard methodology and added to the action plan and these changes reported on annually. This will be guided by further assessments of quality and provision in the borough which will bring forward development of this action plan over the next 5+ years.
The Strategy Action Plan guides delivery of the suite of technical documents produced by KKP in 2019. These documents need to be cross referenced with the Action Plan to provide full clarity. Sites which scored low quality in the original study are rescored once a project is delivered and complete. The scores are then amended to reflect the current status. The technical documents will be revisited by consultants during the lifetime of this Strategy Action Plan to update targets and quality and quantitative data. Annual monitoring reports will be published to monitor progress of the action plan and report any changes to the provision in the borough. This report will highlight achievements and setbacks and will realign targets where necessary.