Wealden Conservatives

WEALDEN
CONSERVATIVES CONSERVATIVE
PARTY BRANCH
NEWS

Tuesday, 02 March 2010 15:24

Housing needs

WEALDEN DISTRICT COUNCIL

Housing Needs Assessment – Findings 2009

WDC have conducted an assessment in their District of housing needs. 8,005 responses were received from the 34,721 surveys sent out, representing a 23% response rate:

33.7% households contain only pensioners
Just 24.4% of households contain children
The average age of household heads is 57 years old
Only 9.1% of households are headed by someone under 35
Only 13.5% of stock is flats, 12% terrace, 47.7% detached
24.4% households are families with 33.7% pensioners
53.6% of households are headed by an employed person
30.3% work within the same parish they live in
17.9% commute within Wealden
35.2% commute to a neighbouring District
6.8% commute to London
The median income was £26,035
The median level of savings is £7,964
About 1.9% of owner-occupiers are in negative equity
14.7% households contain someone with support need

Housing Needs Surveys are undertaken to obtain a picture of housing need across an area. It enables Local Authorities to obtain data which is not currently available at this level from other sources e.g. on debts and equity and is focused predominantly on issues concerning housing need and demand for affordable housing.

For further information (obtained from WDC web site) find “Wealden Housing Needs Assessment 2009” or “Wealden Executive Summary Housing Needs Assessment 2009 or contact Amanda.hodge@wealden.gov.uk

Do please contact us if you would like to discuss a Council matter,

or view the Wealden web site on www.wealden.gov.uk

Sylvia Martin – T: 01825 740556 email: cllr.sylvia.martin@wealden.gov.uk

Roy Galley – T: 01825 713018 email: cllr.roy.galley@wealden .gov.uk

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Tuesday, 02 March 2010 15:23

Postal Vote

WEALDEN NEWS

GENERAL ELECTION – Postal Votes

There will be a General Election, probably on Thursday 6 May 2010. If you are a busy person, commute to London etc., why not have a postal vote which will enable you to vote from the comfort of your home? A postal vote will also enable you to vote in all elections, both local and nationally.

Please contact Wealden District Council on email: elections@wealden.gov.uk or telephone 01892 602417

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Tuesday, 02 March 2010 15:00

Tourism

WEALDEN NEWS

WEALDEN DISTRICT COUNCIL

Tourism

During 2008 tourism activity in Wealden generated just over £281 million of income for local businesses which supported 4,600 jobs in Wealden are tourism and tourism-related businesses, representing 10.2% of all employee jobs in the District. For Wealden, tourism is the second largest employment sector and therefore extremely important to the local economy/community.

The number of tourism day trips recorded in 2008 totalled 5,310,000. Actual monies spent on day trips totalled £156,627,000. The amount of money spent by staying visitors on their trips was £220,157,000.

Visitor patterns on Ashdown Forest

Originally a deer hunting Forest in Norman times, Ashdown Forest is now the largest free public access space in the South East and his known the world over as the ‘home’ of Winnie-the-Pooh. The Forest is at the heart of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and has national and international protection because of its wildlife. Nearly two thirds of its 6,500 acres are heathland amounting to 2.5% of the UK’s extent of this rare habitat.

Findings from a survey of visitors to Ashdown Forest in 2008 some 1.35 million people visited the Forest, with the majority of people (60%) visiting for the primary purpose of dog-walking with 0.62 dogs accompanying every person. However, as the survey took place in August 2008 during bad weather conditions these figures are viewed as an underestimate of total visitor numbers. From vehicle counter data from one car park (Broadstone) which is open all year round it is estimated that visitor numbers could total 2.91 million visitors.

Of the visitors who completed the survey an estimated 169,634 people lived within 15km of Ashdown Forest. 73.3% visited once a day or once a week. A further 8.5% visit at least monthly. Of those visiting the Forest on a daily basis, 90.3% stated their primary reason for visiting was to walk the dog. The majority of people who visited the Forest during the survey period came at the weekend (58.7%). 79.3% of people allowed their dog off the lead for the majority of their walk, while only 5.4% kept their dog on the lead for all of the walk.

The most common reason for visiting Ashdown Forest was the ‘openness’ and views were an important factor in choosing to visit Ashdown Forest.

Cllr Sylvia Martin

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Monday, 01 March 2010 17:27

Labour"s dishonest early release announcement

PARTY NEWS

Grieve reacts to the news that prisoners will still be released early, but under a different grieve2