Section 4 - A Vision for the Hoe Neighbourhood Area

4.1 Needs and Opportunities

4.1.1      
The Hoe has been a natural gathering point and site of special significance since early times. Its commanding views over the natural harbour of Plymouth Sound have shaped its historic and contemporary functions as a military fortification, memorial site, public park, congregational space, bathing area, planned townscape, and tourist attraction.

4.1.2      
The high quality of the townscape, waterfront and parks, recognised by many heritage and ecological designations, gives the area a very distinctive character comprising outstanding natural and man-made assets that could be damaged very easily by inappropriate or insensitive development. Protecting nature and heritage by genuinely securing sustainable development therefore lies at the heart of the Hoe Neighbourhood Development Plan.

4.1.3      
The Hoe Neighbourhood Area is a focal point for Plymouth’s visitor economy and as such its public spaces, parks and roads are used by visitors as much as by residents, at times giving rise to tensions. Balancing the need to foster a thriving tourist economy and the peaceful enjoyment of residents’ homes and neighbourhood is an important community priority and a key objective of the Hoe Neighbourhood Development Plan.

4.1.4      
In recent years the growth of investor interest in property within the Hoe Neighbourhood Area has affected affordability for local people, reduced the supply of homes available to permanent residents, and altered the local demographic by pricing out young families. Addressing this issue by holding in balance the demand for short-term holiday accommodation with the need to foster a diverse and sustainable permanent community is a key objective of the Hoe Neighbourhood Development Plan.

4.1.5      
The potential impacts of the parallel Climate and Nature Emergencies are ever-present in community consciousness. The Hoe Neighbourhood Development Plan has been developed with an eye to the future and the changes that we will all need to make to address global warming and biodiversity loss. This theme is threaded throughout the Plan and its policies.

4.2 Community Vision

4.2.1      
The vision for the Hoe Neighbourhood Area reflects the views that residents, businesses, and other stakeholders have shared during the preparation of the Hoe Neighbourhood Development Plan. 

The Vision Statement summarises these views in one over-arching aim:

The Hoe Neighbourhood Area will be a thriving and balanced community with a strong sense of identity – a place that takes pride in, protects, and enhances all its man-made and natural assets, now and in the future.

4.3 Aims and Objectives

4.3.1      
To achieve the overall aim of the Vision Statement, a set of seven objectives emerged. The objectives, and the policies that evolved from them, set out how the vision will be realised through the Hoe Neighbourhood Development Plan.