News 8: January 2012

Drawing of a dog reading a newspaper

Household Questionnaire

Since our Newsletter in October we have been busy with the co-ordination of the Household Questionnaire. A big thank you to everyone who took part. The high response of 80% was remarkable and confirms how much you care about the Sibfords and their future.

The Questionnaire has been a major task. Many thanks to our willing band of Distributors / Collectors and also the Collators who subsequently entered the ‘Tick Box’ replies onto an Excel spreadsheet. Our Treasurer, Peter Robinson, has now brought these together for analysis of the responses.

We distributed 364 questionnaires to households in the Sibfords. To encourage a high response, our Distributors / Collectors visited households several times to collect the replies. We estimate that 10-15% of houses were not occupied at the time. We have now processed 288 replies. These provide us with the views of 647 people and a sound basis for the preparation of the COMMUNITY PLAN.

At our January Steering Group meeting the Working Groups received both the ‘tick box’ replies and text comments for their topics. The Groups will examine these in more detail and guide the development of actions and opportunities for inclusion in the Final PLAN.

The timetable we have set for the completion of the COMMUNITY PLAN is:

  • Working Groups to prepare a first draft of their findings by the end of April
  • These will be reviewed and incorporated in the First Draft of the PLAN in May
  • The Draft PLAN will be reviewed with Final Draft Approval in June. After this it will be revised and presented for acceptance to the Parish Councils and also at a Public meeting in early July, followed by publication in mid July.

Some headlines that have emerged from the first stage of the analysis of the responses:

  • 80% are home owners
  • 542 cars in household ownership
  • 21% have lived in the Sibfords less than 5 years and 60% more than 10 years
  • 13% walk, 2% cycle and 62% use a car to go to work/school
  • What is valued most about the Sibfords? Landscape setting 19%; peace and tranquillity 17%; off main road 16%
  • 60% would like more dog bins.

We shall report further on the Questionnaire replies and progress with the PLAN in subsequent monthly Newsletters.

Richard Hartree, Chair Steering Group, Tel: 788 215

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