Colchester 002E is the area in which I live in and is a fairly new development and only has data back to 2001. So is my area a sustainable community? It may have some of the features of a being a sustainable community, but it may not actually function as one.
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| Table one |
From April 2001, we can see that there are a total of 633 households’ spaces, but as it’s a fairly new development, it may now be much more than this, as even I can remember the area being shrub land!
Within this area, i show the small percentage that live in a flat and there are many different types of flats. Many blocks of flats tend to have four flats within one block however in the block we live in, there is only two.
Within the area I live, I can see how features of a sense of community have been place within the building works of the area. The SCP (2003) have defined sustainable communities of having, “A flourishing local economy, strong leadership able to respond positively to change, engagement and participation by local people, groups and businesses.”
From living in this area, I can say that there is a strong sense of leadership to try and change things as even my mum was asked to join a residential association.
There is a chance to become engaged with the local people, groups and businesses as we do receive a newsletter through the post. This then lets us know what’s going on within the community and what’s on offer to join or participate in. (However I do have to admit, we do tend to glance through it and put it straight in the bin!)
This is the official website for my local council and this gives us news on whom, what and where. It also gives us the chance to go to meetings where we have our say. So if we want to let the councillors know how to make a positive change in the area, there are many ways to contact them. This then ties in with making a change and interact with others within the same community.
However I can say that when me and brother were younger, we did participate more within the community by going to our school fairs and other things we did more when we were younger, but now we don’t really participate within the community, as I think there is more emphasis for when children are younger in order to socialise.
This community centre also acts as the local church, the halls are available to hire to the public, (even I have been to a few parties in the hall!!) and many other activities for different age group of children. I also when I was younger spent a lot of time here as this was where my dancing classes were held. I am afraid to say I haven’t been in the centre for about 8 years, so as you can tell I’m not very community spirited.
The square also has bus stops and there are three different bus services that go different routes, but all three end up in town. This means there is good transport links around my area for me to get to places and the routes can also mean I can also go to my friends’ houses too!!!
On the square it also has many recycling facilities, such as old clothes, shoe, plastic, cardboard and glass collections and other different collection points. This could be seen as a sustainable feature, as the local community and councils are trying to encourage people by recycling their old things, by having the necessary facilities available.
When looking around my area, many people rely on their cars to travel to work and to other facilities as many of the properties have their own drive ways, garages and allocated car parking spaces. My mum for example has the facility of having her own garage and car parking space. There are many traffic calming measures around the area, as there are many speed bumps and the road has been made very windey therefore drivers do have to slow down more.
So to conclude, my community does have some aspects of becoming a sustainable community with all the community activities that are available to the public and there are also aspects of becoming more sustainable. This is with the recycling systems that are around the local communities, good public transport links and especially with the new bite plus scheme to encourage more young people to use public transport. However there are serious flaws to my area being a sustainable community, as there are many opportunities to do things but now the public do not tend to get involved within the community. As a member of the community, I do when I am at home volunteer at a local brownie pack and I must say I love it! So maybe my local community need to try and reach out to older teenagers and give them a more insight to where these things can lead to in later life. Then there are more people involved in their local community and then will be able to help it to become more sustainable for future generations.
Link to table one
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| My bite+ card |
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