CONTENTS Page
The Survey....................................................................................................... 12
Housing............................................................................................................ 13
Schools............................................................................................................ 14
Work................................................................................................................. 15
Shops............................................................................................................... 16
Other Services................................................................................................ 16
Transport......................................................................................................... 17
The
Environment............................................................................................. 19
Crime............................................................................................................... 20
Council
Matters............................................................................................... 21
Information
about Barlaston........................................................................... 21
The Most
Important Thing About Barlaston.................................................. 21
Appendix 1
Countryside Agency Survey of Services 2000
Appendix
2 Barlaston Questionnaire: Individual Question Counts
Acknowledgements
Barlaston Parish Council
wishes to acknowledge, with thanks, the receipt of grants from the
Countryside Agency and County Councillor Ian Parry, from Staffordshire
County Council’s Local Member Initiative Scheme, which made this study
possible. Thanks also go to the hundreds of local residents who
completed and returned the questionnaire
BARLASTON VILLAGE APPRAISAL
·
The information on which this report is based was collected
from a variety of published sources (including material from the Internet) and
a questionnaire survey carried out in the early part of the summer of 2002
· The parish covers 1200
hectares of largely rural land, much of it forming part of the North
Staffordshire Green Belt. Boundary changes in 1997 resulted in the transfer of
the Wedgwood factory and grounds to the newly established Stoke on Trent Unitary
Authority.
·
The population estimate
for mid 1998, by the National Statistics Office, gives a parish total of 2,800
people. This represents a decrease of 11% since 1981.
·
Population movements into and out of the parish are
relatively small, with one of the lowest levels of change of address in a
twelve month period for the whole Borough.
·
The 1991 census shows that Barlaston has an unusually high
percentage of older people. 25% are above pensionable
age which, on a ward-by-ward basis, is the highest in Stafford Borough.
·
Of those in work, according to the 1991 Census, 62% were
engaged in the service sector (e.g. distribution, catering, transport,
finance), 24% in the primary sector (agriculture, miming and energy), and 12%
in manufacturing. However, economic changes since 1991 are likely to have had
substantial impacts upon these figures, especially with respect to the primary
sector.
·
The parish has experienced some major economic changes on
its immediate boundary in recent years, including the closure of Trentham and
·
Housing is primarily composed of an equal mixture of detached
and semi-detached properties with smaller proportions of terraced housing and
flats. The majority of homes are owner occupied (66% in 1991), although this
figure is likely to have increased in recent years.
·
Health indicators for Barlaston are, perhaps surprisingly,
relatively poor. In particular measures based upon standardised mortality rates, the proportion of small babies
(under 2.5 kg at birth) and people with limiting long term illness compare
unfavourably with the rest of Stafford Borough.
·
In terms of shops and services, Barlaston is relatively well
equipped for a settlement of its size. Despite this, many residents have to
travel more than 2kms. for several key services.
·
According to the Adopted Local Plan (
·
Most environmental risk
factors that are measured by government agencies are favourable,
in particular the quality of the local water courses has improved. There are
however some potential issues connected with the demise of coal mining
(including subsidence) and power generation industries.
·
In total 1158
questionnaires were distributed, one to each household in the parish, and 307 completed
forms were returned. The response rate of 26.5% is very much in line with
expectations for a survey of this kind.
·
Overall the responses
are biased in favour of older people with 48% of respondents being over 60 years
(Q12), compared to 29% of the whole parish population who were in this age
group according to ONS estimates for 1998.
·
There has been very
little recent house-building, and 96% of the
respondents occupied houses built before 1980. Rather more than half of
respondents thought that no further homes are required, but a quarter thought
that Barlaston needs homes for young people.
·
In response to a
question about what influences choice of schools, the overwhelming response
(91%) was high teaching standards with small classes in second place.
·
Approximately two fifths
of children represented by this sample reported being unable to take part in
after school activities, mainly because of lack of transport or distance
between school and home.
·
Over 320 people reported
a need for additional educational facilities in Barlaston, with adult education
evening classes, holiday play schemes and after school clubs being most in
demand.
·
The shops in the village
are used by a very large majority of respondents and for the Spar, the
greengrocers, the newsagents and the butchers a visit at least weekly was the
typical pattern.
·
The Post Office was used
by over 90% of respondents, with a weekly visit by almost half.
·
The Library and Village
Hall were felt to be important by a large majority of respondents, and the
church was an important focal point for approximately half the respondents.
·
The average number of
cars per household was 1.2 and the car was the main means of transport for 84%
of respondents.
·
Almost two thirds of
respondents reported that they never use the bus or the train. Amongst those
who do use the bus, shopping trips are the most important and journeys to work
barely feature at all.
·
Four out of every five
residents believed speeding vehicles to be a problem in Barlaston, with
·
The local environment is
highly valued by residents. Priority needs were the reduction of traffic,
further recycling of refuse and improvements in public transport were the
priorities.
·
On the issue of crime,
over half of the respondents expressed concern about vandalism and two fifths
about theft. Almost two thirds of respondents thought that a greater police
presence would help but an even larger proportion favoured more activities for
young people.
·
Local planning matters
and local authority spending seemed to meet with broad approval by around half
of the respondents, but in both categories a fifth were dissatisfied.
·
The Heron Newsletter and
the Church Magazine proved to be important sources of information about the
local community, being cited by three fifths of respondents.
·
The most important thing
about Barlaston, listed by over 70% of respondents, was the environment. This
was closely followed by the location and the community. The community aspect
included references to such factors as a small and friendly place,
unspoilt/unchanging nature of the village, good neighbours and a safe place in
which to live.
Over
the past few years many local communities have realised the value of
undertaking a village appraisal. At one level these appraisals provide an
interesting snapshot of the characteristics of communities at a particular
point in time and help those communities to define themselves. At another level
they gather facts and opinions from local
people and local sources that help to identify what needs conserving and what
needs improving or changing. In this way they can act as an important tool in
helping to shape the future policies and directions for the community.
The Barlaston Village Appraisal, which
covers the whole parish not simply the village core, was carried out in the
early summer of 2002. It was conducted by the Parish Council and was based upon
a widely used questionnaire prepared by the Countryside and Community Research
Unit at the
In addition to material gathered by this questionnaire survey, the
report contains background material gathered from other sources, including the
Census and reports published by the planning and health authorities. The
sources of this information are referenced in the text.
The Village Appraisal is very much about
present day characteristics and needs of the village, but to set the study in
context, and to provide background for more recent residents a very brief
introduction is necessary.
The most comprehensive source of
historical information about the village is contained within Michael Greenslade’s booklet, Barlaston,
a history, published in 1966 by the
Greenslade suggests that Barlaston was first mentioned around the year 1000
in the will of Wulfric Spot, the founder of Burton
Abbey. It appears as Benulvestone in the Domesday Book, and it was then in the hands of the de
Stafford family until the reign of Elizabeth I. By 1225 it had become separated
from Trentham as an independent parish and by 1526 a
distinct village core had emerged between the Green and the old church.. A major change to the landscape occurred around 1600 with
the enclosure of the medieval open field system and new farms and hamlets grew
up in the eighteenth century.
The eighteenth century was important for
another reason and this is connected with the coming of the canal in the period
1766-77. This changed Barlaston from a relatively quiet rural backwater, to a
settlement on one of the most important industrial thoroughfares of the
day. A similarly profound change
occurred with the coming of the railway in the 1840s. It was the presence of this railway that was,
much later, to prompt two of the largest industrial developments in the entire
history of the parish, that is the establishment of the Wedgwood factory which
moved out from Etruria in 1938 (although the factory
itself was re-incorporated into the City by a minor boundary change in 1997),
and the construction of the power station at Meaford
immediately after the war (since demolished). The years immediately before and
after the war were clearly a formative period for the village, because they
also saw the opening of Wedgwood Memorial College, the third major development
to be established in the parish, but designed to serve a far wider population.
The parish covers 1200 hectares of largely
rural land situated between around 230 metres (750ft) in the north east,
dipping to around 90 metres (300 ft) across the floodplain of the
Today, the settlement takes the form of
three very different areas
1. The older core of the village loosely focused upon the Green
which is a protected open space with several listed buildings adjoining. Much
of this part of the villages dates from the 19th century or earlier,
although there are also newer roads and houses from the 20th
century.
2. The mainly inter and post - war development to the west of the
railway line and canal
3.
The tiny settlement of around 35 people at
the time of the Domesday survey had grown to around
200 by the middle of the C18th. Under the influence of the major developments
outlined above, but also with the effect of the nearby and spreading city of
Approximately 1350 people live in the
village itself, and another 760 in
At the time of
writing, the results of the 2001 census were still unavailable, but an estimate
for mid 1998 by the National Statistics Office suggested a figure of 2,800 people
(http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/aboutness.asp). Care should be taken in attempting to relate
overall population to the number of houses, or likely housing demand because of
important social changes during this period. In general there was a tendency
for household sizes to fall because of greater longevity, the growth of single
person households and marital separation. This means that a given number of
houses is likely to accommodate fewer people overall than was previously the
case.
Age Structure
The composition of a
population in terms of its age structure has many important implications for an
area, including the type and levels of service provision needed. The 1991
census reveals that a particular characteristic of Barlaston is its unusually
high percentage of older persons (25% are above pensionable
age) - much greater than the average for the borough as a whole (17%), and on a
ward-by-ward basis the highest in
Migration
Even in small
communities, populations are rarely entirely static and in Barlaston, as
elsewhere, from time to time individuals and entire households move into and
out of the parish. The explanations for such migrations are many and varied and
include job changes and environmental and housing preferences as well as
factors more directly related to personal circumstances or life-stages, such as
leaving school or retirement. The impacts of such migration can be similarly
varied, ranging from the negative - for instance a weakening of the sense of
community - to the positive - such as the improved vitality and new skills that
often arise from an injection of 'new blood'.
Although the census offers
few explanations for population movements, it does allow the size and
directions of such movements to be determined. Using the data on 'one-year
migration' (residents having a different address one year prior to the census
enumeration) we can see that 5.5% of the resident population of Barlaston ward
had moved home in the preceding year. This figure is actually little more than
half the average for
At the time of
the last Census the economically active population of the parish consisted of
75% employees and 19% self employed (unemployment at the time was approximately
6%) - both figures being similar to the corresponding proportions for the
borough as a whole. Of those in work, 62% were engaged in the service sector
(distribution, catering, transport, finance and other services), 24% in the
primary sector (primarily agriculture and energy), and 12% in manufacturing.
Just outside of the parish boundary, the
closure some years ago of Florence colliery, and more recently that of Hem
Heath (Trentham) colliery has resulted in new
developments and some new sources of employment, for example the Trentham Lakes development. By far the largest remaining
local employer is Wedgwood’s Barlaston factory, which again is just outside the
Parish boundary in Stoke. This plant currently employs approximately 1,340
people, but as everybody in the local area knows, the whole ceramics sector has
experienced a series of difficult years and uncertain market conditions
recently. Also, just on the edge of the parish, lies
the Newstead Trading Estate which houses a number of
manufacturing and processing activities.
Barlaston is the only part of Stafford
Borough that joins with the majority of Stoke on
At the time of
the 1991 census, Barlaston was recorded as having 1,148 households. Of these,
34% occupied detached houses, 36% semi-detached houses, 21% terraced
accommodation, and 10% lived in purpose-built flats. In tenure terms this
breaks down as 29.7% of households owning their property outright and 36.6%
buying on a mortgage. Overall the owner occupier figure was slightly lower than
that for the borough as a whole but the figure of 26% renting from the local
authority was significantly higher. The average number of rooms per household
was given as 5.47 and the average persons per household as 2.45. For housing,
as with other data presented here, it should be remembered that there is
considerable variation from one part of the parish to another and that the
crude figures sometimes mask considerable local differences. This is
particularly noticeable when examining the distribution of households in
rented, as opposed to owner-occupied, accommodation. The former tend to be
concentrated in the
In recent year large amounts of information about local
communities have been collected by various commercial and governmental
organisations who hold it on large databases. This
information can often be accessed via the World Wide Web. Some public
authorities use it for purposes of planning services and facilities, but mainly
it is used by commercial organisations involved in a wide range of activities
including advertising and sales campaigns, job recruitment and selling houses.
One of the best known is a company that operates under the name of Upmystreet with the Web address of (http://www.upmystreet.com/). This site gives a wealth of information,
usually on a postcode basis, about the socio-economic profile and house-prices,
together with basic information about schools, services and crime levels. Given
its mainly commercial uses, it also provides details on levels of ownership of
consumer goods, newspaper readership, television preferences and shopping
patterns.
Examples of the information held on this web-site are given below
for the ST12 postcode that covers most of Barlaston.
|
PROPERTY PRICES JAN-MARCH 2002 (£) |
||
|
|
ST12 |
Eng & Wales |
|
Detached |
Too few sales |
187,800 |
|
Semi-detached |
102,600 |
105,500 |
|
Terraced |
51,500 |
90,300 |
The council tax for a Band D property was given as £940 per year,
slightly above the average of £890 for England and Wales, but expenditure on
local services by the district and county councils at £781 per head was also
somewhat above the national average of £739.
Part of the organisation of all this information involves a
classification of residential neighbourhoods (ACORN) into broad types. A few
examples are given below but it should be noted that these are average
descriptions of typical areas, not exact profiles for everybody who lives in
the given postcode.
ACORN
CLASSIFICATION OF SOME BARLASTON POSTCODES
|
||
|
Postcode |
ACORN type |
Description |
|
ST12 9BQ |
43 |
Council houses, young families, many lone parents. Above average
semi-skilled and unskilled workers. This type comprises 1.6% of the
population of |
|
ST12 9DD Barlaston East |
3 |
Mature, affluent, home-owning area. Above average number aged
65+. Stable. Professional and managerial occupations or retired. 2.7% of |
|
ST12 9EH Barlaston West |
29 |
Home owning, council tenants, retired people. Mixed housing,
largely elderly, generally comfortably off. High % of pensioners. 2.7% of |
|
ST12 9DP Barlaston West |
26 |
Mature, established, home owning area. Comfortable, low level of
recent movers, middle aged. 61% work in service sector (exactly national
average) 3.3% of |
|
ST12 9AS Barlaston East |
27 |
Rural, mixed occupations. White collar and agricultural
occupations. High level of 2+ car ownership. 3.5 % of |
There is limited information available on the health of areas at
such a small scale as parishes, but a few pointers emerge from the Stafford
Borough Locality Profile (South
Staffordshire Health Authority, 1995). Notable amongst the findings of this
report was the fact that, although Stafford Borough has mainly lower than
national average death rates, Barlaston was one of five wards in the borough
with notably high rates. It also came out poorly on the overall health index –
a composite measure of standardised mortality rates, the proportion of small
babies (under 2.5 kg at birth) and limiting long term illness. This relatively
poor standing of Barlaston ward is also evident from other sources, for
example, the MAIGIS (Multi-Agency Internet Geographic Information Service)
calculation of health deprivation. This measure identifies people whose quality
of life is impaired by either poor health or disability and it reveals that
Barlaston has the third worst health score in Stafford Borough (http://maigis.wmpho.org.uk/).
Although no specific reasons are given for
these findings, it is clear from research elsewhere that explanations are often
due to the elderly age structure, the nature of employment and the social
structure generated by industries such as mining and some manufacturing plants.
In many cases the full health impacts take years to develop so that patterns
measured at any particular time may reflect working and environmental
conditions twenty or more years previously.
The 1991 census also asked a question
about ‘limiting long term illness’. This provides
information about the general incidence of morbidity, without going into
details of specific illnesses or types of health problem. In Barlaston, 16.2%
of residents declared themselves as having a long term health problem that
limited their daily activities. This figure is somewhat higher than the overall
average for Stafford Borough (11.9%), but undoubtedly it partly reflects the
older age structure referred to above.
Generally
speaking vehicle crimes and burglaries in Stafford Borough appear to be below
the national average, although, more worryingly violent crime rates are above
average (http://www.upmystreet.com/). At a slightly more localised level the
Staffordshire Police web-site (http://www.staffordshire.police.uk/perform.htm) lists
policing priorities performance figures for the Stone Local Policing Unit
(under which Barlaston falls). For the 12 month period ending March 2000, only
three of the seven policing priorities listed were reported to be on target -
theft of motor vehicles, theft from motor vehicles, and number of road traffic
collisions involving death/serious injury. Although this is encouraging the
other priority categories were reported as still being below target. In none of
the priority areas was local performance exceeding the target level although
this was being achieved in many of the more urban parts of the Division.
Over recent years it is very common for services in villages to
have declined, perhaps under the dual influence of competition from larger
outlets such as supermarkets in the retail sector, and the tendency for public
agencies to concentrate many of their services into larger settlements. To some
extent this is also a response to the greater levels of mobility created by
widening car ownership in rural areas, but there remain significant numbers of
the population, especially the elderly and children, for whom the car is not
available.
In 1983 the Community Council of Staffordshire published a Village Facilities Survey in an attempt
to form a comprehensive picture of what was available in the rural settlements
of the county. Within Stafford District, Barlaston proved to be one of the best
equipped settlements, beaten in its range and number of services only by Eccleshall and Gnosall. For
Barlaston the following were listed,
Food and General
shops (7), Non-food shops (8), Mobile Shop (1),Post Office, Public Houses
(2),Garage, Primary School, Doctor’s surgery, Library, Police Station,
Church/Chapel (2),Village Hall, Youth Organisations (3), Sports Clubs (8),
Public Playing Fields.
A more recent
survey of rural services has been conducted by the Countryside Agency (http://www.countryside.gov.uk).
In addition to providing a comprehensive
listing of facilities and services in the parish, a copy of which is included
here as Appendix 1, it provided
details of household accessibility to important services. This survey, which
was conducted in 2000, showed that although all households in the parish were
within two kilometres of a post office and primary school, 71% of households
were more than 2km from a cash point, 73% were more than 2km from a bank or
building society, 72% were more than 2km from a permanent doctors surgery, and
95% of parish households were more than 2km from a secondary school.
Today, the majority of the shops and a
number of other services are located in
According to the Adopted Local Plan (
Although little change is anticipated
within Barlaston the parish is not immune from broader changes that are going
on around it. In particular some of the region’s traditional industries and
economic activities are changing, contracting and , in some cases, closing., As
a result there are a number of major schemes or potential developments within a
mile or so of the boundary of the parish that could affect the residents in
various ways. The most immediate is probably the 207 hectare site of the now
closed Meaford Power station that lies to the south.
This site has already raised many local concerns about the nature of materials
that are found there and a number of activities that have been carried out.
Currently the site is used for a variety of activities, including car storage,
sundry engineering works, offices and a
Recent concerns for the environment have led to a much wider
dissemination of environmental information to the general public, and again the
Internet is a rich source.
Information designed especially for potential home buyers, but
also of interest to established residents, is provided by ‘Homecheck’(http://www.homecheck.co.uk/). Using this
site to check conditions in the centre of the village, at postcode ST12 9DD for
example gives the following information on environmental risks.
Environmental
risk factors for ST12 9DD
|
|
|
Flood – low risk |
Landfill – low risk |
|
Subsidence – low risk |
Waste – low risk |
|
Radon gas – low risk |
Air quality – good to
moderate |
|
Coal mining – high risk |
|