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webpage last updated 20 February, 2012
Wickhambrook Parish Plan
Following a meeting organised by the Parish Council with Suffolk Acre (action for communities in rural England) that took place on the 30th March, a number of people expressed a strong interest in organising a further meeting to explore whether or not a project to produce a Wickhambrook Parish Plan should be created.
At that further meeting and another after that, seven people volunteered to lead the project and they have formed a steering group for a Parish Plan project known as the WPPSC, Wickhambrook Parish Plans Steering Committee.
February 2012 Update
The £50 Parish Questionnaire Raffle winner has come forward - the winner was a gentleman in Emily Frost Close.
Photo of the Month - February
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Progress update ...
December 2011 ... The Wickhambrook Parish Plan Steering Committee would like to thank everyone who completed the questionnaires and also the dedicated team of volunteers who delivered and collected them.
Between us we have achieved an excellent 80% return rate. Nearly 400 household have returned completed copies.
Now that the questionnaires have been collected they have been sent to Suffolk ACRE for data entry, ready for statistical analysis.
We look forward to presenting the results to all Wickhambrook residents and businesses early in the New Year. At that time we will also announce the winner of the raffle so keep your tickets!
Previously ...
Since the last update we completed an application for a grant to "Awards for All" and submitted it as planned in December 2010. The application was to gain funding to enable us to support the production of the Parish Plan questionnaire, a comprehensive analysis of the results and ultimately the production of the Parish Plan report to the village.
After due consideration, we were informed that our application had been successful and we would be receiving a grant from the Big Lottery Fund. This was excellent news as we could now bring the project to fruition.
With the money from the Big Lottery Fund in place we have been working on getting stakeholder views on topics and areas of interest and preparing the framework of the questionnaires that will be sent to every household in the village. There will be a general short questionnaire for each household, one for each villager and supplementary questionnaires for businesses and young people. This range of questionnaires will allow us to get an excellent view of the opinions and views of villagers on a number of topics that have been identified as being of key interest.
The questions are now being formalised by us and will shortly be trialled by selected people to ensure they are the best they can be and once that is done and any revisions made, we will then look forward to the next stage of the project which is where we ask you the village to help us distribute the questionnaires around the village.
There will be three ways of completing the questionnaires, by written answers and return to the distributor, online for those of you who are internet savvy and lastly by arrangement for some drop-in sessions that we will be holding. We encourage people to complete the questionnaire online as it is quite easy and will speed the collection of answers and their analysis for us.
We will be seeking to have each volunteer distributor deliver questionnaires to about twenty households or so during the Summer, a number that we think will be manageable by most people for the area in which they live.
We will shortly be in touch with those of you who were at the first Parish Plan meeting and expressed an interest in being a distributor.
If you would like join our crew of distributors and help the village on its way, please let us know by email to wickhambrookplan@aol.com or contact Steve Sumner, the Chairman on 01440 820222 (evenings). If you are not sure about saying yes or no, let us know and we will be happy to discuss what is involved and talk through the process with you.
The Parish Plan Committee
The Parish Plan Committee is as follows:
| CHAIRMAN | |
|---|---|
| Steve Sumner | |
| Vice Chairman | |
| Keith Harrison | |
| TREASURER | |
| Jim Ashling | |
| COMMITTEE | |
| Viki Mayes | |
| Kate Sammons | |
| Alan Morris | |
| Daryl Griffiths | |
| CONTACT DETAILS | |
| Parish Plan Committee | |
About the Parish Plan
The object of the group will be to steer a Parish Plan project on its way. Initially this will involve such tasks as identifying stakeholders in the project, interested parties and those groups of people or individuals that we would like to invite to participate. If you represent a group of people and would like to take part, please let us have your contact details.
Once all the stakeholders have been identified and contacted and their views and opinions received, we will then begin constructing a questionnaire to be sent to as many people in the village as possible, and some people outside the village too.
After the questionnaires have been distributed and the completed ones received back, which we expect to take place over a period of several months then the major task of analysing all the answers and producing "the Parish Plan" will take place.
A number of people have already asked what a Parish Plan is and what is it there for.
It is effectively a document that sets out the strategy for the Parish, a business plan.
It will :‐
Indicate the views and opinions of residents on important local issues
Provide service providers with the information they need to incorporate into their future policies and plans, bodies such as the Parish, District and County Councils.
What the views, opinions and needs are of the youth of the village.
What ideas people have for helping the village to thrive.
What are the important things that people think should be developed in the village.
Then it will identify the lead organisations and partners to enable the above and set out the projects the village may look to undertake and the funding methods for those projects.
As you will expect, there is a massive amount of work to be undertaken to get to the end result given above, some of it is expensive in time, some of it expensive financially so the steering committee will have to find and obtain the necessary resources if we are to deliver the complete plan.
In times past, the financial aspects of Parish Plan production were quite readily available, now in these prudent times it will be a challenge, the committee will have to apply for loans and grants and seek sponsorship from businesses in the area. If you are a business and interested in sponsoring either the production of the questionnaire or the final report, we may be able to offer some exclusive advertising opportunities for you, let us know when we contact you as a stakeholder.
There have been some start‐up costs for the project, unfortunately Suffolk Acre are no longer themselves able to offer their services and skills free of charge and we are pleased to let you know that the Parish Council has supported the project by agreeing to fund the initial stage.
