5) Environment
The number of indicators under this priority has reduced since the last edition of Condition was published. This is because several indicators which were previously used relied upon data from the 1991 Census of Population or were partial and did not cover the whole of the county. In these circumstance and in the absence of new data prior to the release of the 2001 Census results, we have concentrated upon only those data which are both up to date and give county-wide coverage.
Road Injury Accidents have reduced slightly by approximately 200 since the last edition which relied upon 1998 figures. Whereas in the last edition Worksop and Mansfield local areas recorded by far the highest numbers, in 2000/01 the worst districts for road accidents were Bassetlaw and Newark & Sherwood.
Nature Conservation Sites; this data is based on the revised botanical Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) series produced by the Nottinghamshire Biological and Geological Records Centre. The data shows an overall increase in the number and area of locally important sites for wildlife identified throughout the county. A huge survey effort undertaken in the last 5 years has identified previously unnoticed sites of interest, which have filled the gap left by those sites lost through development and inappropriate management. Some areas have seen significant increases in both the number and area of SINCs; Ashfield for example has 40 more sites than previously and over 10% of the area of the district is now designated as SINCs. The losses reported for some areas have been outweighed by the gains elsewhere but most areas have remained at similar levels to those found 10 years ago. Particularly noteworthy local changes include Hucknall North where almost 12% of the ward has now been added to the SINC series whilst Worksop South and Greasley wards have both had almost 6% of their areas removed from the list. The map ( E1) shows the location of those wards in which large proportions are comprised of land designated as SINCs.
Re-use of Land for Employment is the same indicator used in the last edition of Condition but updated to include the period 1993-2000.
Comparison of the 2 editions shows that take-up increased from 38.3% between 1993-1998 to 44.1% between 1993-2000. It is noteworthy that Broxtowe has seen all development for employment taking place on brownfield sites and Gedling, Rushcliffe and Mansfield also do well on this indicator. The ward breakdown is partial, as many wards have no data. Map E2 shows a very dispersed pattern of take up as well as those areas where no land has been developed.
On Re-use of Land for Housing, Broxtowe, Mansfield and Newark & Sherwood lead the way. Some areas score poorly due to the lack of available previously developed land whilst some areas may have included a large site available for re-use as housing development and this may have contributed to good performance.
The House Building indicator measures the rate of new house building in 1999/2000 as a percentage of the total number of dwellings. This shows an increase from 7.9% in 1997/98 to 9.5% by 1999/2000. Whereas the last edition showed the highest rates to be in Rushcliffe and Sutton in Ashfield, this time the highest rates are found (in descending order) in Newark & Sherwood, Ashfield and Rushcliffe with a very low rate in Broxtowe.
