Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
reached a peak of 249,000 in 1949, declining in the 1980s due to outmigration with the
closure of the docks and other employers. In 1991, the population was 212, 170 and in
2001 it had risen to 236,000. Newham is one of London's largest boroughs, with a very
diverse ethnic population. In 2001, 43 per cent of the population was from ethnic groups
(Asian, African and Caribbean) and by 2006 this population was expected to reach 60 per
cent of the total. Despite gentrification in pockets of London Docklands and around
Stratford, the London Borough of Newham's (LBN) Unitary Development Plan of 2001
states that the area is one of the most deprived areas in the UK, using the government's
own deprivation indices, a feature apparent in geographies of London (Hoggart and
Green 1991). Although Newham is an outer London borough, it has many inner city
characteristics which has led it to consider being classified as part of inner London (see
http://www.newham.gov.uk/). The borough's main open spaces and parks were created in
the Victorian and Edwardian periods, with notable additions in the inter-war and post-war
period. In 1991, the proportion of the borough deemed to be parks/open space was 180
ha, or 4.9 per cent of the total area of the borough. By 2001, this had increased to 253 ha
(6.95 per cent of the borough), reflecting the creation of new sites/improvements to
existing sites as development has occurred in the south and north of the borough, often as
a condition of planning consent for development.
Newham Council undertakes a number of roles in leisure service provision (e.g. sports
centres, libraries, arts and cultural services, parks and open space provision and tourism),
where the UDP is guided by the borough's Leisure Development strategy and London-
wide strategies that have to be accommodated at a local level. In planning terms, the LBN
establishes policies in its UDP to guide open space provision. Two of its key objectives
for increasing open space provision is to incorporate its needs into larger urban
regeneration plans for the Stratford railyards area adjacent to the new Channel Tunnel rail
terminal and the redevelopment of the Beckton Gas Works site.
The council has a number of open space designations: green belt land to the north of
the borough (for example, Wanstead Flats and the City of London Cemetery);
Metropolitan Open Land; sites of borough-wide importance; sites of local importance and
green corridors, complemented by urban parks (Archer and Yarman 1991). These
policies are now incorporated in the Unitary Development Plan for Newham, with urban
parks forming one of the most widely available forms of open space either as large
multipurpose parks or smaller community based recreation grounds.
What is notable in the LBN 1993 and 2001 UDP is the lack of open and green space
among the lowest of London borough's for green space and park provision. The LBN,
utilising the National Playing Fields Association Standard of 2.43 ha of playing space per
1000 population. In 2001, this provision was only 1.1 ha per 1000 population. The spatial
distribution of similar deficiencies in park provision are shown in Figure 5.4c, which
shows that in 2001, large areas of the borough fall short of accessibility to local parks
(i.e. where the population is more than 400 metres from any park area over 2 ha).
Similarly, the absence of children's play space which is more than 200 metres from an
equipped children's play