Parish Plan

COMING SOON: Your Parish Questionnaire

Following a recent sampling exercise, the Parish Plan Steering Committee (PPSC) is nearing the completion of the final parish questionnaire. Every household within the parish can expect to receive theirs by June/July.

To have your voice heard on issues affecting the parish, it is crucial that you complete and return your questionnaire by the deadline, as the feedback received will provide a blueprint for the future of the parish.

Posters will be displayed around the villages nearer the time, to inform all residents of relevant dates. Further information will also be released via the parish newsletters and the village websites. Alternatively, you can contact PPSC Chair, Chris Carter-Keall, (Tel: 247690) or PPSC Secretary, Tracy Snook (Tel: 247519).

Would you like to join our team?

We currently have a vacancy for a Focus Group Leader for the ‘Community Infrastructure’ working group. Applicants from Curridge village would be ideal but we welcome any member of the parish to join us. If you would like to know more or wish to register your interest please contact PPSC Secretary Tracy Snook (Tel: 247519).

April Update

The Parish Plan Steering Committee (PPSC) are currently carrying out ‘sampling’ of a draft questionnaire on a small segment of the parish. Feedback will be gathered and analysed by the end of this month leading to any necessary alterations to the final questionnaire. This will be ready for production and distribution to every household within the parish by May/ June.

If you want your voice to heard then it is crucial that you complete and return your questionnaire by the set deadline, as the feedback received will provide a blueprint for shaping the future of the parish.

Posters will be displayed around the villages nearer the time to inform all residents of relevant dates. Alternatively you can contact PPSC Chair, Chris Carter-Keall, (Tel: 247690) or PPSC Secretary, Tracy Snook (Tel: 247519).

Parish Plan Steering Committee Makes Good Progress for 2008

Following last year’s November Forum, the PPSC continued work on drafting a set of questions for the parish plan questionnaire. The Focus Group Leaders, working under the seven key topic areas, worked with their groups to draft a series of questions, which were agreed at January’s committee meeting.

On the 23rd January West Berkshire Council held a briefing with PPSC members enabling them to present their questions and gain valuable feedback from relevant Heads of Departments and other senior officers.

Following the briefing a final draft questionnaire was drawn up, ready to test on a small segment of the parish. Following further feedback and consultation from this sample market, a final questionnaire will be produced and delivered to every household in the parish.

The questionnaire will be a fundamental tool to producing a Parish Plan as it will feedback the wants and needs of parishioners, and will therefore be central to shaping the plan for the future.

For more information on the development of the parish plan or regular updates you can visit this page, or call PPSC Chair: Chris Carter-Keall, (Tel: 247690) or Secretary: Tracy Snook (Tel: 247519).

February progress update

Following last year’s November Forum, the PPSC have continued work on drafting a set of questions for the parish plan questionnaire. The Focus Group Leaders, working under the seven key topic areas, have worked with their groups to draft a series of questions, which were agreed at last month’s committee meeting.

The draft questions were presented to West Berkshire Council and other stakeholders at a ‘Parish Plan Surgery’ held on the 23^rd January at the West Berkshire Council Offices. This event was an open workshop, which enabled members of the PPSC to liaise with Heads of Departments and Senior Officers.

Following this event a final draft questionnaire is being drawn up, ready to test on a small segment of the parish. Following further feedback and consultation from this sample market, a final questionnaire will be produced and delivered to every household in the parish.

The questionnaire will be a fundamental tool to producing a Parish Plan as it will feedback the wants and needs of parishioners, and will therefore be central to shaping the plan for the future.

For more information call PPSC Chair: Chris Carter-Keall, (Tel: 247690) or Secretary: Tracy Snook (Tel: 247519).

November progress update

November Forum Identifies Key Issues

All members of the Parish were invited to the ‘November Forum’, an evening of discussion held at the Chieveley Village Hall. This event provided the opportunity for each of the seven key topic groups to identify their main issues.

The evening proved highly productive in meeting this objective and once each focus group had identified its key issues, they moved onto the next crucial stage of development.

Using the Gloucestershire questionnaire application for reference, the focus groups began drafting up their own set of questions to be incorporated into one larger questionnaire that will be distributed early next spring.

Work on this stage is still on going and over the next few months the FGL’s and their groups will aim to finalise their questions for initial use with a test –market. During this time the focus group leaders will also begin discussions with service providers to explore how main issues can be addressed.

For more information on the development of the parish plan or regular updates you can visit the village websites; www.chieveley.info or www.curridgevillage.co.uk or call PPSC Chair: Chris Carter-Keall, (Tel: 247690) or Secretary: Tracy Snook (Tel: 247519).

Would you like to join our team?

We currently have a vacancy for a Focus Group Leader for the ‘Community Infrastructure’ working group. Applicants from the Curridge village would be ideal but we welcome any member of the parish to join us. If you would like to know more or wish to register your interest please contact PPSC Secretary Tracy Snook (Tel: 247519).

October progress update

The Parish Plan Steering Committee (PPSC) was formally established in September with a constitution and Chris Carter Keall as Chair. Will Hooper took up the post of Treasurer and Tracy Snook as Secretary. Joining the committee last month in the role of Publicity Officer’s were Penny Tomkins and Jenni Collins.

The Focus Group Leaders (FGL’s) are now busy establishing their working groups. They begin this process by approaching those who expressed an interest in their particular subjects at the open days last July. They also start the job of approaching service providers to explore how issues raised at these consultations could be addressed.

Anyone can still join the working groups. The seven key topic areas and Focus Group Leaders are:

Environment/Sustainability Mike Taylor

Transport/Highways Paul Turner & Nicholas Collins

Housing/Planning/Development Nick Hodge & Jean Rush

Leisure Facilities (incl.Youth) Kathy Titcombe & Janice Bridger

Community Infrastructure Hilary Cole

Education Jean Fayle & Martin Linderman

Employment Chris Carter-Keall

The Chieveley, Curridge and Oare Parish Plan is launched

Three days in July saw the initial consultation for the parish plan with 235 people attending from all around the parish, from the under 10’s to the over 85’s. The tables on community facilities, transport, housing, leisure facilities, environment, education, access to the environment and employment collected a good number of comments but the star attraction, around which there was much discussion, was the 6ft x 4ft parish map. The red, green and blue flags, provided to stick into the map, proved irresistible to pin-point likes, dislikes and areas that residents would like to preserve. So popular was this that all the flags had been used up by the end of the third day!

Both the Chieveley and Curridge halls were filled with display materials and photographs describing interesting snippets of information of days gone by from all around the parish. A montage of drawings from the school children provided a colourful addition of their favourite places in the parish. Drawings and photographs were entered into competitions with prizes sponsored by Dreweatt Neate. Gemma Watson, Adam Vaughan and Mark Vaughan were winners at the Chieveley event; Grace Hanrahan the winner at Curridge. Samuel Llewllyn won the 11-18 years prize draw and thus the MP3 player, kindly donated by Jeff Mead of Curridge.

Over the summer, the comments from the topic tables, the parish map, the questionnaires and the suggestion boxes, plus comments sent in by those who could not make it on the day, are being collated by the acting steering group. Local concerns will be identified and, ultimately, appropriate questions designed for the parish plan questionnaire. Provisional working groups have been set up for each topic and those who have expressed an interest will be invited to join. The most urgent task is to set up a formal steering group. The acting steering group has made a good start but it now needs to attract more volunteers before the next steps can be taken. It is hoped that enough willing volunteers will be identified from the feedback forms from the launch days but anyone else who wants to volunteer will be warmly welcomed. It is hoped that many hands will make light work. Please email parishplan@chieveley.info. The next meeting will take place on Thurs 6th September at 7.30pm. in Chieveley Village Hall to which anyone interested in helping with the plan is very welcome to attend.

As well as all those individuals who have contributed so far, special thanks must go to Denison Barracks, Hermitage and the Greenham Common Trust for their help with photocopying, preparing notices and photographs.

Preparing for a Plan

A group of villagers has recognised the need for a village plan. This is used by regional and central government as input into many areas of policy development, notably planning and transport. The village is in a stronger position to negotiate if it has a plan than if it does not.

A plan must be prepared with input from the whole community if it is to be taken seriously. Those preparing it must demonstrate the breadth and depth of consultation. We would also very much like your input! The plan consultation will be launched at events in Curridge WI Hall on 13th and 14th July and in Chieveley Village Hall on 7th July. The plan preparation is independent of Chieveley Parish Council, but with their active support and funding.

If you would like to make input on any aspect of the plan, please send an e-mail to ParishPlan@Chieveley.info . Please also send an email to that address if you would like to participate in the process of preparing the plan. The chair of the planning group is Hilary Cole.

Follow this link for a letter to all parishioners to be delivered in June 2007. This contains an outline of common features of a plan and further details of the launch events.

CHIEVELEY LAUNCHES ITS PARISH PLAN

Two weekends in July will allow Chieveley residents to have their say on how they wish their parish to look in future years. Parish plans, a national initiative enthusiastically supported by West Berks Council, must come from a broad section of the community and will be used by local and central government to influence future policies such as planning and transport. Parishes will be in a stronger position to negotiate with than without a plan.

Residents of Chieveley, Curridge, Oare & Snelsmore are invited to drop into Chieveley Village Hall anytime on Sat July 7^th between 10am to 2pm or into Curridge W.I.Hall on Fri 13^th July between 2pm -6pm and Sat 14 July 10am-2pm to put forward informally what they want for their parish, ie. community facilities, transport, environment, housing, leisure facilities, education etc. or whether they want their villages to stay more a or less as they are. Photographic competitions will be run at both Chieveley & Curridge, with prizes sponsored by Dreweate-Neate, for under 11 year olds and 11-18 year olds, showing favourite buildings or places, now and in the future.

The views gathered will lead to a parish questionnaire covering topics of concern and to an action plan. Contact parishplan@chieveley.info. Suggestion boxes will also be placed around the villages. Further details are in the June issue of the Hermitage & Curridge Pathfinder and in the Chieveley Parish Magazine and on www.chieveley.info and www.curridgevillage.co.uk.