Creating healthy and sustainable communities

Planning decisions can help to reduce inequalities to ensure that every resident in Herefordshire can grow up, live, work and retire in an area where they can lead healthy and fulfilling lives. 

A healthy and happy life can be impacted by a number of environmental factors such as: 

• High quality open space provision

• Availability of community and health facilities

• Walkable safe neighbourhoods

• Dark skies

• Green and blue infrastructure corridors

• High quality infrastructure

• Digital telecommunications. 

Currently, the provision of these is not distributed evenly across the county. The least deprived neighbourhoods generally have better access to these than the most deprived areas. 

Green and blue infrastructure (GBI) is an important community asset that supports sustainable and healthy communities. It serves multiple functions for communities, such as mitigating and enabling them to adapt to climate change. Extensive green infrastructure in urban areas will be vital for providing shading and cooling neighbourhoods as average summer temperatures increase due to climate change. If planned for in the right way, it can also either prevent or reduce the extent of flooding, which will become increasingly prevalent in future. It also serves many other functions such as providing access to green spaces for recreation and access networks which serve as walking, cycling and wheeling routes and accommodate spaces for people to exercise, socialise, reconnect with nature and improve wellbeing. Open spaces need to be accessible and inclusive and to reflect the needs of the local community. 

It is vital that new developments are well connected by offering a choice of transport options to encourage healthier ways to travel. 

Suitable infrastructure is also vital for supporting residents and capitalising on the economic and social benefits of infrastructure and digital connectivity. The county’s infrastructure will also need to be adapted to improve its resilience against a changing climate and support an increasing population. This will need to be done in a sustainable way whilst supplying communities with the services and amenities they need to live comfortably.