Minehead Key Sites Research

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Minehead Key Sites Research

• Phase II Research Findings
• August 2005

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Background

• Following the outcome of the Key Sites Exhibition
  consultation, it was decided to widen the net and
  get feedback from a broader cross-section of
  local residents
• with a more creative brief, recognising the
  decision of SCC to withdraw from their part of
  the scheme
• A two-part study was commissioned
• open-ended discussions to examine broad
  perceptions, as well as resident-driven ideas for
  the proposed development
• a full-scale survey of local opinion to properly
  quantify residents views
• This presentation reports on this last piece of
  work

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Method

• The Phase II research was carried out as follows
• 461 telephone interviews (including those from
  the pilot)
• with a completely random selection of households
  within the District
• plus additional targeting of children living at
  home
• an interview length that averaged 17½ minutes
• containing a mixture of pre-coded and open-ended
  questions
• The sample size is sufficient to be confident
  that the answers lie within about /- 6
• Analysis has been carried out to compare these
  results with the Exhibition Survey

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Presentation structure

• Reminder of the focus-group research findings
• Respondent profile
• Attitudes towards Minehead as a place to live,
  work etc
• Facilities considered important within the
  development
• Attitudes towards
• the Civic Offices
• employment
• retailing
• Watchet and Williton
• Perceived community benefits
• Summary and conclusions

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Summary of focus groups
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Method

• The qualitative research was carried out through
  four focus groups
• The focus groups involved participants who came
  from Minehead, the Williton and Watchet areas and
  few other outlying villages, with a mixture of
  socio-economic backgrounds and age
• 18-35
• 36-60
• 60 mainly retired
• 60 active, working, voluntary, retired
• Groups were asked what they would like to see
  developed in Minehead at the Vulcan road site

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Summary 1

• The qualitative research showed that, whilst
  Minehead is perceived to be a good place to live
  by many, it is not seen to be an easy place to
  work or find accommodation
• The town is not felt to capitalise on the
  seafront and the key sites were felt to be
  important in helping with the efforts to revive
  the town
• Whilst economic revival is not recognised as a
  term and smacks of inappropriate scale, a revival
  of the seafront, heritage, light industrial and
  artisan culture is accepted

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Summary 2

• Competition is felt to be lacking in terms of the
  retail offer in Minehead, both to challenge Tesco
  and the High Street traders
• Retail was also seen in part as an
  entertainment by the non-retired. Seen to be
  lacking in Minehead were
• a clothes offer which is either affordable or
  aspirational
• affordable and varied food range
• varied and modern music outlet
• DIY outlet
• home range
• non-MacDonald's cheap catering outlets eg Pizza
  Hut or TGIs
• Residents do not want the High Street to die
  but to be enhanced, improved and developed. Not
  all believe that development of the VR site as
  retail would destroy the High Street

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Summary 3

• A training academy was popular providing
• vocational, trade apprenticeships
• arts-based
• sports
• tourism
• Leisure-based, entertainment complexes were also
  popular to
• reduce boredom
• encourage visitors
• provide a cheaper food offer
• provide jobs
• Balancing the Butlins effect is also considered
  a reasonable objective
• not all jobs go to locals
• skews the tourist mix

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Summary 4

• The focus groups showed that the VR development,
  whether retail or leisure/entertainment-based, is
  seen to benefit and be more appealing to
• lower income groups of all ages
• families
• young people (both 18 and 12)
• women
• out-of-town district residents (leisure,
  entertainment)
• However, there is strong resistance towards
  retail development at the VR site from older
  retired residents (both rural and town) who are
  not on low incomes
• The older retired residents using the High Street
  a lot are concerned about losing that facility.
  They are more interested in leisure/ cultural/
  entertainment facilities, job creation and youth
  projects on the site

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Respondent profile
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Gender

• In the Residents Survey, 60 of respondents were
  female
• the Exhibition survey was more skewed towards
  males

2001 Census 47 53
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Age
Age Census Survey lt19 6 6 19-44 29 25 45-64 34
39 65 31 31

• Targeting of young people enabled us to achieve a
  much broader spread of ages than was the case
  with the Exhibition Survey

47 were employed, 41 retired The rest
students, jobseekers and housewives/husbands
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Household composition 1

• Many more respondents in the Residents Survey, 1
  in 5, had children living at home

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Household composition 2

• and those children at home were much more
  likely to be of primary school age

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Home location

• More than a half of respondents in the Residents
  Survey lived in Minehead and immediate environs
  (TA24)

Nearly two-thirds have been living at their
present address for six or more years 18 are
newcomers (1-2yrs)
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Car ownership

• One in eight respondents had no car available in
  their household
• The majority (51) had just the one vehicle

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Attitudes towards Minehead
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Views on Minehead 1

• Minehead is rated highly as a place to live and
  visit
• but comes in for most criticism as a place to
  shop, to work and for leisure activities

52 of lt25s
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Views on Minehead 2

• Certain facilities in Minehead are rated very
  high
• medical facilities restaurants, pubs, clubs
  and bars
• the library parks and play areas

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Views on Minehead 3

• The facilities attracting most criticism tend to
  centre on cultural activities, and things for
  teenagers to do

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Views on Minehead 4

• Minehead is seen to be most lacking facilities or
  services for teenagers, shopping, sports and
  culture

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Example views on Minehead
A decent swimming pool/leisure complex. Also, a
decent supermarket
Sports and leisure facilities. A larger swimming
pool is needed. Larger leisure and fitness
facilities that are not tied to school so the
public can use them at any times and more
gymnasium facilities as well cinemas and theatres
and a better class of shop
Shops, things for teenagers to do, public
transport
Cinemas, entertainment services. A bowling alley
The facilities for young people could be better,
especially for teenagers. At the minute most have
to go to Taunton to find something to do, which
involves using public transport. And that's not
that great
Shopping is poor, only one supermarket, not good,
geared towards holiday goers
We need more sports facilities. A bigger swimming
pool and a lot more for 14-20 year olds.
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Attitudes towards the development
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Desired development features

• Features of the development most desired would be
• facilities for young people employment
  opportunities
• farmers and craft market activities for
  tourists and residents (including a cinema,
  swimming pool and open space)

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Unimportant features

• Least important facilities would be
• a fast-food restaurant or other restaurants,
  cafes and bars

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Other desired facilities
Housing should be the biggest priority. People
want to move here but cannot as housing isn't
available or affordable
A tourist information centre, a decent "upmarket"
gift shop. Also, a decent clothes shop "Which
doesn't just sell tat"
A new swimming pool but not a 5 year gap between
building swimming the new swimming pool and
demolishing the old one
Provide more books in the library it's not just
for internet use
Butlins could do more for teenagers. Teenagers
could go in there for leisure activities then
they are not disturbing the older community.
Locals should be listened to more, for example we
should have more polls and referendums
Music venues, local place where people can turn
up and just play instruments for others to listen
to
Better access to the harbour as it is difficult
to launch boats. So additional launching
facilities at the harbour would be good
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Council offices
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Council services

• 61 said they were, in general, quite or very
  satisfied with the quality of public services
  provided by WSDC
• a figure significantly higher than seen in the
  Exhibition Survey

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Civic offices 1

• On balance, a majority of residents believed it
  is important to have a single central council
  office
• 51 said it was important, 31 said it was not
  important
• Opinion may be divided as to where it should go,
  but most think on the outskirts of Minehead

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Civic offices 2

• Specific suggestions included

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Employment
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Employment 1

• 86 believed the Council should be attracting new
  businesses into Minehead
• Top priorities are manufacturing workshops and
  small tourism-related businesses

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Employment 2

• Rather less emphasis is evident in this survey on
  manufacturing and high-tech, compared to the
  results from the Exhibition

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Other desirable business types
Any hi-tech business which doesnt rely on
physical connection (due to lack of roads) to the
rest of the country. Call centres electronic
communications. Architects, design studios etc
Venture activities e.g. climbing
Perhaps businesses such as engineering to give
youngsters a skill. Plumbing or electricians or
businesses in the building trade so again young
people can gain qualifications
Internet based businesses. Run businesses from
home
Anything that is linked to the natural resources
of the area
Businesses aimed at working mothers. Ones which
are easy to travel to so travel costs are kept
down and ones which can provide working shifts
such as 10am-2pm
A theme park but not high priority. Need to focus
on offices to provide employment for school
leavers, at the moment they're having to go to
Taunton
Retail and food. Care industry. Transport
services. Entertainment businesses
More apprenticeship schemes for younger people
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Retail
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Retail 1

• Nearly 60 of residents go outside the District
  to do their shopping at least once a month

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Retail 2

• The principal shopping centre used was Taunton
  for all categories, but notably clothing and
  footwear

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Retail 3

• The comparison between the Residents and
  Exhibition surveys is quite marked, with far less
  use made of Tauntons facilities by the latter

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Retail 4

• Exactly two-thirds (66) think it is important to
  provide new retail outlets in the new development

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Retail 5

• Clothing and footwear shops are the major ones
  that people would like to see, with significant
  demand for DIY too

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Retail 6

• The others referred to included
• Marks Spencer
• A department store
• Organic or health-food shops
• Crafts
• Specialist child or baby shops, eg Mothercare
• Haberdashers
• Photography
• Trendy clothing, especially for teenagers
• Plus several requests for higher quality shops
  and more independent shops

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Retail 7

• Opinion is quite divided about the importance of
  having a supermarket
• 39 said yes, it was important, 61 said, no it
  was not
• Asda would be the supermarket of choice for
  two-thirds of people

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Watchet and Williton
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Use of facilities

• Across the District, nearly a half of residents
  said they use the shopping, leisure or community
  facilities in Watchet or Williton

Improvements to leisure or community facilities
in outlying towns and villages (such as Watchet
or Williton) was the third highest priority for
spending any surplus scheme revenue
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Why not?

• Those who never go to Watchet or Williton tend to
  give reasons such as
• the lack of facilities (or that they are better
  elsewhere)
• shopping is more expensive there, and limited in
  choice
• its too far to go (or their lack of a car makes
  it difficult)
• some concerns about crime
• some concerns about parking

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Additional facilities

• Those who do go were asked what additional
  facilities they thought should be provided
• more shops, especially a supermarket, clothes and
  shoes
• a community centre
• a leisure centre and swimming pool
• something for children, such as a youth club or
  skatepark

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Community benefits
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Community benefits 1

• If there is to be surplus revenue generated, the
  top priority would be for this revenue to go
  towards providing affordable housing

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Community benefits 2

• Far fewer residents want improvements to Minehead
  town centre or the seafront than was seen with
  the Exhibition Survey

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Community benefits 3

• Other facilities or scheme that people felt might
  benefit included

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Summary and conclusions
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Relative importance

• Of all the principal components of the scheme,
  attracting new businesses is of paramount
  importance in residents eyes

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Who develops the land?

• Overwhelmingly, residents believe that the
  Council should develop the land itself

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Conclusions 1

• Residents of West Somerset evidently see Minehead
  as an attractive town to live in, or to visit
• But Minehead has obvious weaknesses. Those
  weaknesses centre on shopping, leisure and
  employment opportunities
• as well as its cultural life
• and, critically, suitable activities for
  teenagers

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Conclusions 2

• The survey has shown that there is an evident
  District-wide mandate for a development that
  would provide
• employment opportunities
• new shops
• leisure and cultural facilities
• a focus on the needs of young people
• There is even a majority in favour of
  establishing a new single, central, Council office

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Conclusions 3

• Although this survey was not designed as a retail
  study, it has shown the huge extent to which
  residents go outside the District to do their
  shopping
• Not surprisingly, therefore, there is a
  significant call for certain types of new retail
  outlet, notably
• another supermarket (Asda)
• clothing and footwear
• DIY
• books, music

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Conclusions 4

• Whatever scheme is adopted, there will continue
  to be considerable opposition
• This research suggests that such opposition could
  be mitigated with the careful use of such
  arguments as
• the allocation of spare revenues on housing and
  other facilities for young people
• enhancements to community facilities in outlying
  areas
• the revival of Mineheads seafront
• as well as actions to address Mineheads other
  weaknesses
• It would be important to stress, too, the extent
  to which the scheme is attractive to all the
  Districts residents, including younger people

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Conclusions 5

• Finally, we would suggest that there are some
  lessons for local democratic processes that arise
  from this exercise
• the importance of engaging residents and
  businesses in the early creative stages
• the importance of consulting early once draft
  proposals are defined
• the importance of capturing all shades of
  opinion, especially in controversial cases that
  might divide the community
• the scope for public opinion to be misrepresented
  by vested interests
• the opportunity for niche communities to
  influence traditional consultation methods in
  their favour
• the power of robust consultation methods in
  countering the vocal minority

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