• Future Wales sets out the 20-year spatial framework for land use in Wales, providing a context for the provision of new infrastructure/ growth. Future Wales identifies Vale of Glamorgan as falling within the South East Wales region, the smallest of the four regions by area, including the coastal cities of Cardiff and Newport and the former industrial heartlands of the south Wales valleys. Future Wales highlights the importance of the region's connections with the Mid Wales and South West regions and the West of England region. Promoting accessibility and inter-linkages (i.e., sustainable transport and employment) across the regions, alongside providing the necessary digital infrastructure, will benefit the physical and mental health of the population. Furthermore, supporting Vale of Glamorgan as an area with essential services and facilities alongside strategic digital and green infrastructure will have a beneficial impact on residents' overall wellbeing.
• The RLDP will be required to be in general conformity with PPW which predominately seeks to ensure planning decisions support all aspects of well-being. PPW places the concept of placemaking at the centre of national planning policy to deliver new development which is sustainable and provides for the needs of all people.
• PPW is supplemented by TANs, which translate Welsh Government's commitment to sustainable development into the planning system and provide national planning policy in respect of health. Notably the RLDP will be required to:
  ─ Contribute to the protection and, where possible, the improvement of people's health and wellbeing as a core component of achieving the well-being goals and responding to climate change.
  ─ Consideration of the possible impacts of developments – positive and/or negative – on people's health at an early stage will help to clarify the relevance of health and the extent to which it needs to be considered.
  ─ Development plan policies should be designed to ensure, as far as is practicable, that noise-sensitive developments, such as hospitals, schools, and housing, that need to be located close to the existing transportation infrastructure to facilitate access, are designed in such a way as to limit noise levels within and around those developments; and
  ─ Development plan policies and decisions on planning applications should consider national air quality objectives, recognising that they represent a pragmatic threshold above which government considers the health risks associated with air pollution are unacceptable.
• World Health Organisation provides guidelines on the health effects of noise and national indicators set by the Welsh Ministers under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, together with information from the local authority's annual air quality reports, national noise maps and any area statements issued by Natural Resources Wales under the Environment (Wales) Act 2016.
• The Planning and Enabling Healthy Environments: Incorporating a template for planning policy report promotes a better understanding of the broad environmental and social barriers that impact on health, well-being, and inequality, and sets out guidance on how policies and plans can address these issues.
• The Placemaking Wales Charter builds on the strengthening focus on Placemaking in policy and practice in Wales and aims to provide a common understanding of the range of considerations that go into placemaking. The charter outlines the following six placemaking principles that cover the range of considerations that contribute to establishing and maintaining good places:
  ─ People and community.
  ─ Movement.
  ─ Location.
  ─ Public realm.
  ─ Mix of uses; and
  ─ Identity.
• Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child^[69] states that 'Children have the right to relax and play, and to join in a wide range of cultural, artistic and other recreational activities'. The Cardiff and Vale Director of Public Health Moving Forwards: Move More, More Often report (2018) emphasised the importance of active play to children's physical, mental, social and emotional health and well-being. Having welcoming places, enough time and the company of others to play every day is of great importance to all children and teenagers.
• In March 2021 the Welsh Government announced that active travel schemes will receive a funding boost of more than £53 million as part of the Government's efforts to encourage healthy travel. In addition, pupils will be helped to get to school through the 'Safe Routes in Communities' grant, supporting schemes across Wales. This will contribute towards delivering the priorities identified and agreed through the various health, social care and wellbeing strategies identified in Table 4.1 above.
• In 2020, the Council published its Coronavirus Recovery Strategy^[70], which sets out the social, economic and well-being impacts that the pandemic has had on communities and setting out its key priorities. This supports the Vale's Corporate Plan 2020-2025; notably objectives include 'working in partnership to maximise people's physical and mental well-being' and 'understanding how our environment contributes to individual, community and global well-being.'
• Vale of Glamorgan Public Services Board is currently applying for World Health Organisation (WHO) Age Friendly status in the Vale. This status will be recognition that the Vale is a place where people of all ages can live happily and healthily, especially as they grow older. The Cardiff and Vale Director of Public Health 2019 Re-imagining Ageing into the Future report emphasised the key health impacts of the built and natural environment upon older people's health and wellbeing.

Baseline summary

General health

4.4 The following trends have been identified in relation to general health in the Vale of Glamorgan:^[71],[72]

• Adults in the Vale of Glamorgan record overall good health when compared to peers from different areas of Wales.
• For both females and males, the Vale of Glamorgan records one of the highest average life expectancies at birth.
• The rate of premature deaths from non-communicable diseases is among the lowest in Wales, while the rate of avoidable mortality is the second lowest in Wales.
• There are clear inequities in health between those living in the least and most deprived areas of the Vale of Glamorgan. Not only are those from more deprived areas expected to live less years, but during their lives are more at risk of experiencing: chronic conditions, limiting long-term illness, mental health conditions and as a result premature death.
• Adults in the Vale of Glamorgan generally record engagement in healthy behaviours above the Welsh national average. However, alcohol consumption above guidelines remains a concern in the Vale of Glamorgan, particularly in the Western Vale.
• There are differences in engagement in healthy behaviour between the least and most deprived areas; with those in most deprived areas less likely to engage in healthy behaviours, and most likely to experience poor health outcomes as a result.
• In terms of wellbeing, slightly more people in the Vale of Glamorgan report being satisfied with where they live than the Welsh national average.
• It is estimated that by 2035 3,311 of the Vale's population aged 65 and over will have dementia.
• The Vale of Glamorgan has the lowest rate of childhood obesity in Wales at 7.1% as recorded by the Childhood Measurement Programme. The highest rates are observed in areas of higher deprivation.
• The Vale of Glamorgan has the highest percentage of adults (16+) drinking above national guidelines in Wales. It is estimated that 25.5% of adults in the Vale drink above national guidelines compared to the national average of 19.1%.

Open space and play facilities

Open space

4.5 Access to open space can have benefits that are both mental and physical. Areas of deficiency may therefore result in a population that does not participate in informal physical activity, alongside other secondary effects associated with environmental inequality. In this regard, the adopted LDP allocates several public open spaces including Barry Waterfront, designated Country Parks, fields, and farmland. The Vale's green spaces are shown in Figure 4.1 below, with Country Parks and Common Land separately identified.

4.6 As shown in Figure 4.1, designated green spaces are relatively sporadic throughout the Vale, with significant areas of Common Land to the east of Cowbridge and within St Brides Major to the northwest of the Vale.

4.7 Figure 4.1 shows the Vale's two Country Parks are significant in size, (Cosmeston Lakes and Porthkerry), located to the southwest of the authority.

4.8 Notably, designated as a Country Park in 1978, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park covers an area more than 100 hectares.^[73] The Park provides a range of informal recreation opportunities in close proximity to large numbers of the Vale of Glamorgan population. Centred on two flooded quarries, the country park includes a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and provides a wide variety of natural habitats and diverse plant and animal species.

4.9 There are 597 hectares of access land throughout the Vale (where people can walk anywhere, instead of having to keep to linear paths), 91 hectares of this is NRW managed woodland. In total 2% of the Vale of Glamorgan's area is access land.^[74]

4.10 Notably, the Vale has good accessibility to the Welsh coast, including the Glamorgan Heritage Coast and the All Wales Coast Path, access to which supports health and wellbeing.

4.11 The arts have numerous benefits which include contributing to people's health and wellbeing both mentally and physically. Public art can add to the quality of the built environment improving where and how people live. Public open space may provide opportunities for the integration of new public art and there are numerous good examples of this in the Vale.

Healthcare facilities:

Figure 4.4 Green space and active travel routes