Volume One 12. Urban Environments 12. Urban Environments Introduction Towns and settlements are concentrations or nodes of human activity. In Marlborough they became established for particular reasons: as the service centre for an agricultural hinterland, a transport junction, a port or coastal retreat. Whatever their beginnings, Marlborough’s towns and settlements are more than simply collections of buildings and activities; they are communities of people with increasingly diverse backgrounds, coming from both within and outside Marlborough. Each town or settlement is home to a variety of people who associate together in many different ways, including through work, business, sports, school, clubs, church parishes, street neighbourhoods, age or disability groups. Marlborough’s towns therefore comprise a complex fabric of relationships, interactions and transactions between people to which is added the physical fabric of buildings, spaces and infrastructure. The quality of the social and physical fabric of each town, as well as the opportunities available therein for business, determines the quality of life of the people who live there. The towns and settlements of Marlborough reflect the different natural environments in which they occur as well as their varied heritage and function. These towns and small settlements can be characterised by size into one of four categories: • larger urban towns (Blenheim, Picton/Waikawa, Havelock, Renwick, Seddon); • smaller towns (e.g. Ward, Wairau Valley, Spring Creek, Grovetown, Rarangi, Rai Valley); • coastal Marlborough Sounds settlements; and • clusters of lifestyle living scattered throughout the District. This chapter of the Marlborough Environment Plan (MEP) will focus on the first two groups of towns: Blenheim, Picton/Waikawa, Havelock, Renwick, Seddon, Ward, Wairau Valley, Rarangi and Rai Valley. Each of these towns is diverse in character and in the nature of activities occurring within them; there is no 'typical' Marlborough town. The basic distinctions in the climate and geography in the Marlborough Sounds, Wairau Valley, Wairau Plains and the Awatere Valley create underlying differences in their environments. The character of Marlborough’s towns is also a direct reflection of the different land use activities that occur within and around them, as well as the location and form of the buildings where those activities occur. Larger towns have a combination of residential, commercial and industrial activities, providing a more diverse character than that of the smaller towns, which are predominantly residential in nature. The prosperity of Marlborough’s towns has always depended upon the value of production from their rural and marine hinterland. Diversification in new technologies and creative industries is expected to contribute positively to the economy in the future, with Marlborough’s hinterland expected to continue supporting a robust economy. This is also reflected in Chapter 4 - Use of Natural and Physical Resources. 12 – 1