In April 2014, the Humber, Ford & Stoke Prior Neighbourhood Development Plan project was publicly launched with a series of consultation events, called Your Community, Your Future.
These were drop-in events, held in the two village halls and two other locations, for all residents to come and have their day on what development our community needs, including where new housing should be built. The focus of the events was a big map of the parish in which residents could stick themed flags, marking what mattered to them and where. There were also themed boards to pin-up their more detailed comments.
Leaflets inviting residents to come were personally delivered to every household by a team of 25 volunteers:
Your Community Your Future leaflet
Humber Close event flyer Fairmile event flyer
Younger residents give their views
Barbecue event for Humber Close residents
Events were held on Wednesday 9 April 2014 from 4-9pm at Stoke Prior Village Hall; on Thursday 10 April 2014 from 4-9pm at Risbury Village Hall; on Friday 11 April 2014 in Fairmile for residents of that area; and on Saturday 12 April 2014 from 3pm for residents of Humber Close in Steen’s Bridge.
An introductory presentation ran on a loop during the events in the village halls: NDP April events intro presentation
A total of 251 residents from the group parish attended, across all age-ranges, which is 39% of the total population.
Boards at each event tracked where people came from and their age/sex profile
You posted no fewer than 608 comment cards and peppered the maps with 522 flags, telling us what mattered to you and what development you thought was needed in the neighbourhood. Every single comment and flag was logged and analysed by the NDP Steering Committee, and the analysis is available below. It was used to identify the important issues which we needed to address in the Neighbourhood Development Plan and in other action plans, and helped produce the detailed questionnaire which was delivered to every resident in May 2014.
The most common issues you flagged up were:
Housing: a need for affordable/family housing, with development mostly as infill in the villages, but not confined to this.
Traffic, transport, access & safety: a need to tackle speeding, manage traffic around the school, provide more parking at the school and village halls, and protect or replace the bus service. Also, of course, to get Balfour Beatty to mend the potholes properly…
Facilities and Services: support for re-locating Stoke Prior Village Hall, possibly in combination with other facilities; support/hope for The Lamb to re-open and a desire to keep the Post Office.
Work & Education: a need for improved broadband, and a need for a pre-school nursery.
Environment & Heritage: improvement to the footpaths and bridleways network, a need for more renewable energy sources, greater protection of the countryside and wildlife, and work to prevent localised flooding.
Leisure & tourism: the importance of The Lamb re-opening; a need for playground/sports areas, and a desire for more community events.
You can see the full report on all the comments and map-flags here: Comments summaries and analyses
Steering Committee members analyse the map-pins and comments:
Photographs of all the comments cards for each category and of the maps with the flag-data shown as annotated dots:
