Places & Environment Matter

Aim: Creating safe and liveable areas – greener, cleaner and safer living environments, with a focus on deprived areas.

Why? The quality of public spaces affects all of us wherever we live and work. Safe, well maintained and attractive public spaces have a critical role in creating pride in the places where we live, which, in turn, is essential to building community cohesion and successful communities.

People set great store by the quality of public spaces and recognise them as places that should enhance the quality of life in our neighbourhoods, villages and towns. Residents locally often give priority to improvements in crime reduction and tackling anti-social behaviour; the local physical environment; housing and neighbourhood management; and the provision of constructive activities for children and young people.

Transport is a very live issue in terms of congestion, accessibility and integrated public transport services as well as the impact on our environment. At the same time there is a desire to protect local identities, landscapes and environments whilst accommodating the need for more housing and employment land.

The issues around creating cleaner, greener and safer areas are the building blocks of renewal. They also link local actions to improve our living environment and the contribution we can make locally to global environmental issues such as climate change.

Strategic Objectives

• SO1 to reduce social exclusion and deprivation and increase educational attainment particularly in those parts of the Borough identified as areas of relatively higher need, for example the priority neighbourhoods of Loughborough East, Loughborough West, Mountsorrel and South Charnwood.
• SO4 to protect and reassure our communities through the reduction of crime, anti-social behaviour and the fear of crime.
• SO5 to promote stronger, cohesive and balanced communities having regard to changes in demographics, for example influencing the type of housing provision.
• SO7 to reduce contributions to climate change and to promote prudent use of resources through patterns of development, design, transport measures, reducing the use of minerals, energy and water and minimising waste and encouraging recycling in support of achieving a carbon neutral borough.
• SO8 to develop integrated transport schemes and measures to improve safety and reduce the adverse environmental and other impacts of traffic on local communities, for example in and around Loughborough and settlements close to Leicester.
• SO9 to protect the historic environment and identity of the Borough’s locally distinctive towns, villages and neighbourhoods.
• SO10 to reduce the risk to people and properties through flooding in vulnerable locations such as parts of Loughborough and the Soar and Wreake Valley villages.
• SO11 to protect the special and distinctive qualities of all landscapes, and to pay special attention to impacts upon Charnwood Forest and its environs and to support the National Forest Strategy.
• SO12 to maintain and enhance the range of ecological sites, habitats and species found in Charnwood and seek to deliver biodiversity gain and reverse habitat fragmentation.
• SO13 to create distinctive and quality places for local people by requiring high design and increasingly higher environmental standards in new development and by encouraging improvements in existing properties to be more environmentally friendly.