Knowing Your People

The Neighbourhood Plan team spent some time looking into how the makeup of Tarvin parish has changed over recent years.

Information from the census showed that the population of Tarvin Parish was 2705 back in 1971 ; 2884 in 1981 and 2728 in 2011. So despite quite a lot of building over this period and very little demolition the population has hardly changed.

However what has changed is the age profile of the residents.
The parish has got much older in terms of age profile. For example between the 1991 and 2011 census the number of people aged 60 or more increased by 59% to 818. However between the same dates the number of residents between 16 and 24 reduced by 50% to 205.

The average size of households reduced from 3.17 in 1981 to 2.4 in 2011- a significant reduction. From the census data the Steering Group were able to deduce that more that 25% of households were occupied by people aged 65 and over. They recognised that the recent developments at Saxon Heath (Taylor Wimpey site) and the smaller development at Millside Close off Bypass Road will have marginally changed the profile.
Tarvin featured in the lowest 20% in the Country for housing affordability.

All the above data demonstrated that the Steering Group needed policies to address housing type, housing cost and access to medical facilities.