Shaftesbury

Shaftesbury is one of the oldest towns in England. The town overlooks the Blackmore Vale, and combined with its history and architectural character, it is certainly one of the most attractive.

The steep, cobbled Gold Hill is probably one of the most famous streets in the country. The town is the main shopping and service centre for the surrounding area, and provides a range of educational, health and recreational facilities, as well as its own art centre and museum.

Communications

Shaftesbury is located halfway between Blandford and Warminster on the A350, 7 miles south of the A303. The nearest railway station is at Gillingham, 4 miles away.

Education

Shaftesbury pyramid area:
4 primary schools, 1 secondary school.
The secondary school for the area
Shaftesbury School and Sports College (1,053 pupils in 2011).

For further information on Shaftesbury School & Sports College (opens in a new window)

Commercial land

Between 1994-10, 5.0 hectares of industrial land has been developed in Shaftesbury. The total area of land with permission or allocated in local plans is 7.3 hectares

Crime

Domestic burglaries

Rate per 1,000 households

Area	2002/03	2003/04	2004/05	2005/06	2006/07	2007/08	2008/2009	2009/10
Shaftesbury	12.2	4.8	7.7	4.5	6.1	n/a	3.8	10.9
DCC Dorset	6.6	6.6	6.5	5.7	4.4	n/a	4.1	3.8
South West	14.8	12.3	10.7	8.9	8.4	n/a	8.2	7.6
England and Wales	20.0	18.6 (GB)	14.4	13.5	13.1	n/a	12.2	11.6

Note: Due to small numbers burglary rates for small geographical areas (e.g. towns) can vary significantly from year to year.
Source: Dorset County Council

Other sources of crime data

Access the Police crime mapping Shaftesbury (opens in a new window) where you can find crime data on a month by month basis (starting December 2010) mapped to neighbourhood and street level. This looks at the crime types of burglary, anti-social behaviour, robbery, vehicle crime, violent crime and other crime. Note this comprehensive and up-to-date database only looks at numbers of crimes and not crime rates for individual crimes. It does give an overall crime rate (per 1,000 people) for the neighbourhood.

Population

Latest population figure (2010 mid year estimate) for the town (Shaftesbury Parish) is 6,640

Year	1921	1931	1951	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001
Census population (enumerated)	1,810	2,820	3,300	3,370	3,980	3,940	6,180	6,670

Housing growth

Year	98	99	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Housing development	26	29	100	57	54	6	33	60	43	7	3	4	46

The 2001 Census records 3,124 dwellings in Shaftesbury.
Since 2001, a further 256 have been built giving a total of 3,380.
At March 2010, a further 759 units have permission and 0 are allocated in the local plan

Note: Figures allow for losses from re-development etc. Method revised 2009.

Index of deprivation, 2007

(Figures show SOA ranking out of 247 SOAs in Dorset with 1 being the most deprived)

SOA	Multiple	Income	Employment	Health	Education & Skills	Housing & Services	Crime	Living
Shaftesbury Central	36	30	41	48	31	122	58	99
Shaftesbury Christy's	209	154	239	220	91	113	186	212
Shaftesbury Grosvenor	121	112	159	184	22	74	120	178
Shaftesbury Underhill	180	183	192	203	213	97	39	95

SOA = Super Output Area (minimum 400 households or 1,000 population)

Index of deprivation, 2010

SOA	Multiple	Income	Employment	Health	Education & Skills	Housing & services	crime	Living
Shaftesbury Central	47	32	39	48	40	187	64	110
Shaftesbury Christy's	226	194	236	200	132	154	221	219
Shaftesbury Grosvenor	103	76	81	127	42	108	122	186
Shaftesbury Underhill	174	184	170	75	223	142	63	90

Click here for detailed information and mapping of the The Index of Deprivation, 2010

Source:DCLG

Average house prices

Dwelling type	Average Price July - Sept 2009	Average Price July - Sept 2010	July - Sept 2010 (sales)
Detached	£236,878	£329,958	12
Semi-detached	£160,646	£181,752	19
Terraced	£151,619	£182,454	21
Flats/maisonettes	£123,100	n/a	0

Land Registry average prices (Prices may be affected by low number of sales). Data based on the postcode sector SP7 8.

Area
Approx 'built-up' area = 310 hectares (766 acres)

Local authority revenue

Council tax band D for Year	Council tax payable
11/12	£1,628.20
10/11	£1,623.18
09/10	£1574.12
08/09	£1,519.51
07/08	£1,445.59
06/07	£1,369.06
05/06	£1,322.92
04/05	£1,252.70
03/04	£1,185.71
02/03	£1,025.79
01/02	£924.97
00/01	£872.47
99/00	£827.06

Second/holiday and vacant homes, 2011

Total dwellings on Council Tax Register	3,429
Total number of second homes	45
Second homes as a % of total dwellings	1.31
Total number of long term empty properties	40
Empty homes as a % of total dwellings	1.22

Source: Council Tax Register (parish figure, rounded)

Population 2010: Mid Year Estimates ONS

Gender breakdown	Dorset	Shaftesbury
Resident Population	404,790	6,640
Males	196,420	3,130
Females	208,370	3,520

Age structure (%): 2010 Mid Year Estimates ONS

Age range	Dorset	Shaftesbury
0-15	17.0	19.2
16+17	2.7	3.5
18-44	25.4	25.5
45-59	20.9	19.9
60-84	30.0	27.3
85+	3.9	4.4

Ethnicity (%): 2001 Census

Ethnicity	Dorset	Shaftesbury
White British	96.8	97.0
BME	3.2	3.0

Health: 2001 Census

Health category	Dorset	Shaftesbury
% with Long-term Illness / Disability	19.2	17.5
Health: % Good	68.1	69.2
Health: % Not Good	8.4	7.2
% Providing Unpaid Care	10.8	9.5

Poverty Indicators: Housing/Council Tax Benefit, 2009

Benefit population	Dorset	Shaftesbury
as a % of total town population	13.6	12.0

Socio-economic classifications, 2010 ACORN

Classifications	Dorset	Shaftesbury
% Wealthy Achievers	40.1	32.3
% Urban Prosperity	7.1	2.1
% Comfortably Off	33.2	43.2
% Moderate Means	9.2	14.6
% Hard Pressed	10.2	7.6
% unclassified	0.2	0.2

ACORN is a geodemographic segmentation of the UK's population which segments small neighbourhoods, postcodes, or consumer households into 5 categories, 17 groups and 56 types.
The 5 higher level categories "wealthy achievers", "urban prosperity", "comfortably off", "moderate means" and "hard pressed" are shown above.

A full ACORN Profile for the town, with mapping of the wards is available. Access the Shaftesbury ACORN Profile (pdf, 1Mb) (opens in a new window) here.

Retail profile - total town floorspace

75 shops/78,000sq.ft. (2005)

Town centre:

Mainly small shops but includes nationals such as Body Shop, Boots, Somerfield, Superdrug and W H Smiths. Tesco's is based outside the main shopping area.

Catchment population:

The shopping catchment for Shaftesbury (major food shopping) extends around 4.5 miles in a N,S,E, & W direction, partly into Wiltshire. The Dorset population within that catchment is around 11,200 (mid 2001).

Library - Number of issues of books etc

Library	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
Shaftesbury	75,755	74,229	67,107	65,508

Industrial estates

Longmead Industrial Estate (7.7h), Wincombe Business Park (6.5h).

Unemployment % (persons)

Year	Male	Female	Total
July 1998	3.1 (49)	1.3 (20)	2.2 (69)
July 1999	2.6 (42)	0.9 (14)	1.8 (56)
July 2000	1.9 (33)	0.9 (15)	1.4 (48)
July 2001	1.0 (18)	0.8 (15)	0.9 (33)
July 2002	1.3 (28)	0.5 (9)	0.9 (37)
July 2003	1.0 (26)	0.3 (7)	0.7 (33)
July 2004	1.3 (26)	0.5 (9)	0.9 (35)
July 2005	0.9 (17)	0.5 (10)	0.7 (27)
July 2006	1.4 (28)	0.7 (12)	1.1 (40)
July 2007	1.0 (20)	0.5 (10)	0.8 (30)
July 2008	1.0 (20)	0.3 (6)	0.7 (26)
July 2009	1.8 (36)	1.0 (19)	1.4 (55)
July 2010	1.7 (34)	0.8 (17)	1.2 (51)

Of July 2009 unemployment figures, the long term unemployed = 3.6%
Of July 2010 unemployment figures, the long term unemployed = 9.8%

2009 Employment

Total number of people working in the town: 3,300

Number of firms (excluding the self employed): 310

Work pattern	percentage
Full-time	65%
Part-time	35%

Type of employment	%
Manufacturing and other non service	15
Construction	13
Accommodation & Food Service activities	6
Other Services	12
Distribution including motor	20
Finance and business services	13
Public administration, Ed and Health	21

Source: Annual Source: Business Register and Employment Survey, 2009, ONS

Major employers

Blackmore Press, Dorset Chilled Foods, Dorset County Council,
HMYOI Guys Marsh, Pork Farms, Port Regis School, Royal Mail, Somerfield,
Stalbridge Linen Services, Tesco, Wessex Electricals.

Traffic counts in the Shaftesbury area - annual average daily traffic

Road	Location	AADF (Annual Average Daily Traffic)							Percentage Growth Since
No.		1983	1990	2000	2005	2008	2009	2010	2009	2008	2005	2000	1990	1983
									1 Year	2 year	5 Years	10 Years	20 Years	27 Years
A350	North of Shaftesbury	4,700	7,000	9,200	9,600	9,900	10,000	9,800	-2%	-1%	2%	7%	40%	109%
B3081	West of Gillingham	1,800	3,000	3,400	4,700	4,500	4,600	4,600	0%	2%	-2%	35%	53%	156%
B3081	South of Shaftesbury	3,700	5,400	6,400	7,600	7,600	7,600	7,700	1%	1%	1%	20%	43%	108%
A30	East of Shaftesbury	5,200	5,700	6,400	7,400	6,800	6,800	6,400	-6%	-6%	-14%	0%	12%	23%
A350	South of Shaftesbury	n/a	n/a	n/a	4,200	4,550	4,500	4,300	-4%	-5%	2%	n/a	n/a	n/a
A30	West of Shaftesbury (Long Cross)	n/a	n/a	n/a	5,100	6,300	5,900	5,800	-2%	-8%	14%	n/a	n/a	n/a
A30	Christies Lane - Shaftesbury	9,300	13,900	n/a	16,900	17,700	17,600	17,100	-3%	-3%	1%	N/A	23%	84%