Sustainable Community?

On February the 5th 2003 the deputy prime minister set up the sustainable communities project, this tried to create sustainable communities in rural and urban areas. The programmes action aims to focus the attention and co-ordinate the efforts of all levels of Government and stakeholders in bringing about development that meets the economic, social and environmental needs of future generations as well as succeeding now.



In this blog i am going to look at my area back home and how it resembles a sustainable community. Farnham Common in Buckinghamshire is just north of Slough and south of Beaconsfield, i will look closely at its super output area and see whether it resembles a sustainable community.



My home is in the super output area of South Bucks 004B, this area includes the main high street of the village with several shops on, it next to the national park of Burnham Beeches, and has a wide range of houses, from terraced estates to larger detached houses. Lots of development has taken place in the last 2-3 years, new shops have developed and new housing developments have been put up. There has also been lots of changes in Burnham Beeches.



Farnham Common is a large village, this means it is not the closest social community, many people commute to nearby towns, or London which is only around 30mins drive away. Looking from a personally view a lot of my local friends parents either commute to Slough or London to work. Most of the people living in the super output area are either elderly or families, one observation from living in the area is that families can be more socially active as the children make friends at school and the parents know each other. More residential building are being developed in the heart of the village, this could lead to an increase in the commuter population. Commute villages are not always highly sustainable, although the economy of the place will be high because of more high profile jobs, there is also a poor social aspect with people seeing less of neighbours.

The A355 runs through the village and super output area, this runs between to towns of Slough and Beaconsfield, there can be lots of traffic which is not good for the environment and can also make the high street dangerous for pedestrians. Lots of development has taken place along the main road. Recent projects involved small supermarkets basing shops in Farnham Common. Sainsbury's and Tesco have both based local stores in the area. This has had positive and negative effects on the community. The opening of these news stores did bring money into the area and the local government has also made a new housing development near to the main road, however it has also forced local shops to close or change business. The Stars newsagents closed, taking away some social aspect of local residents life and also meaning some young people lost their job of delivering local papers. A local butchers Andrews was loosing money and found it more profitable to change into a Fish+Chip shop, this could show development of the small village into more of a small town community.

Burnham Beeches is very local to the super area output and has recently been upgraded to a national park status, the woodland gets over 500,000 visitors a year. This many visitors can boost the local economy and raise awareness of the area to people who live slightly further away from the area. Being a national park also shows that the area is preserving the environment and many environmental projects take place in Burnham Beeches which has a huge species variety. Their are also volunteer programmes in Burnham Beeches, this helps to local population to be educated about sustainability and the environment.

Is South Bucks 004B a sustainable community?
Looking overall at all of the different features and changes that have taken place my local super area output we can see whether it could be considered a sustainable community. There has been lots of local development, shops in the village are being updated, this shows that future generations will have a better choice of shops, it has also boosted the economy. However there are also set backs with many traditional stores closing down due to the high profile competition. South Bucks 004B is also next to Burnham Beeches, this enables local people to interact closely with the environment and also be educated well about sustainable development. It also attracts a large number of visitors which helps raise awareness of the area and boost the economy. Socially the area is fairly strong with families knowing each other and talking, however there is a large number of commuters which can have a negative effect on the area.

Overall i think South Bucks 004B is a sustainable community but there are still steps that can be taken to improve it further and enhance the opportunity for future generations in the environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainable life.