I am
the Chairman of our Parish Plan Steering Group and I would like
to take this opportunity to introduce the Plan to you and let
you know more about what it is, how it all came about and some
of the key points it contains.
What
is the Parish Plan
Taken
from the official guidance issued by The Countryside Agency:
“A
Parish Plan is a statement of how the local community see itself
developing over the next few years.”
The key
elements are that the Plan is generated by the community and for
the community. The ultimate purpose is to influence the actions
and decisions of local government in order to protect, maintain
and develop Woodhall Spa along the lines that we, the residents,
wish. It is a constructive document which, hopefully, provides
a sensible, rational and plausible direction for the development
of our village.
What this
Plan is not is a list of endless “no this” and
“no that” statements. None of us want to live in a stagnant,
dying community fearful of change and shutting ourselves away from
the real world. But we also want to preserve all that is good and
wonderful about our village. And quite frankly, it is down to us
to apply the pressure and guidance to our local government to ensure
the future of Woodhall Spa is what we want and not what some faceless
bureaucrat or property developer wants.
The
development process
We started
out in May 2004 at the Annual Parish meeting. From then, the Steering
Group was formed and work started on canvassing the community for
issues and concerns to be addressed in the Plan. Several busy months
later, we produced the questionnaires to send out to the community.
The household survey was distributed (by hand!) to 1800 houses
in the community; over 40% of those were returned, which was a
tremendous response. For the more technically minded, the questionnaire
was also available on the Internet. A business survey was also
produced, although the response to that was disappointing. We also
sought the views of the over-11’s by a survey sent to QEGS,
Gartree and Banovallum schools. Not to be left out, the under-11’s
are also represented by their vision of Woodhall Spa in the Section
– Young People – where you will find quotations from
the contributions made by the children of St Andrew’s Church
of England Primary School. Finally, a Housing Needs Survey was produced
by the Community Council of Lincolnshire and distributed along with
the household questionnaire.
The results
from all the questionnaires were analysed by our consultant and
the key issues identified. A summary of the key points was made
to a packed Annual Parish Meeting in June 2005. Following on from
that several draft of the Plan were produced and reviewed by the
Steering Committee to reach a version that was suitable for distribution
for further comment and consultation with the community and interested
parties which included an open evening for views and comments,
a special comments e-mail address and provision of boxes for receiving
written responses. The Committee took those comments and incorporated
them into this, the final version of the Parish Plan of 2005. Our
final act was to present the Plan to the Parish Council for formal
adoption.
What
does it contain?
As you
read on you will find that the document is broken down into Sections
addressing separate areas of concern. Each Section looks at the
issues involved, reports on the findings of the various questionnaires
and identifies steps or actions to take to ensure that the community’s
desires and wishes are enacted or taken forward, as appropriate.
A complete Action Plan is included in the back; this Action Plan
is detailed, providing timescales and identifying partners with
whom we as a village need to work.
Key Issues
It should
come as no surprise to anyone that the key issues of this Plan
are:
- The
preservation of the village atmosphere, appearance and general
ambience
- The
enforcement, through stricter planning control, of the scale
and type of building development
that will both meet the demand and preserve the “look and
feel” of the village
- The
preservation of Jubilee
Park, through an increase in support and funding by ELDC
- The
maintenance and upgrading of the woods in and around the village
- Promotion
of the village to a clientele that appreciates the natural beauty,
leisure facilities and appearance that we have to offer
- More
attention paid to anti-social behaviour and the root causes
- The
future of the Spa Baths
- The
need to ensure Woodhall Spa remains a balanced and sustainable
community
Who
did all the work?
The donkey
work in producing the information that has gone into this Plan
has been done by a group of 18 volunteers from our community (the
number varied slightly from meeting to meeting) over the last year.
These volunteers have put in several hundred hours of unpaid personal
time because they believe in this Plan and what it will mean to
the village. You will find their names in the back of the Plan
and I would like to thank them all on your behalf for their contributions,
patience and perseverance. At times it has been an interesting
experience, to say the least!
It is
appropriate to acknowledge here those who have also contributed
to this Plan. The Countryside Agency provided the funding, without
which the cost would fall on us. Guidance and technical support
was given by the Community Council of Lincolnshire and our consultant,
Joss Nicholas of 15-22 Consultancy. Joss was responsible for guiding
us in preparing the questions, analysing the results and preparing
the drafts of the Plan for the Committee to develop. Acknowledgement
is also due to Councillor David Hill for providing the impetus
to kick start the whole project.
But the
Plan is not the Committee’s vision or that of any of the
other supporting agencies. It is your vision as expressed through
the responses to the questionnaires we sent out in January and
through the suggestions, ideas and concerns raised at the various
public meetings or made directly to the Committee throughout the
year.
Where
do we go from here?
The Action
Plan towards the end of this document identifies agencies and organisations
to take forward some of the issues we have identified. But many
of the other issues are those that we ourselves must address. The
Parish Council can and should take the lead and provide the umbrella
organisation in forming working groups and committees to look at
specific issues; but, it is down to us to volunteer our time and
expertise to support those groups and committees. This Plan is
only a document; it needs people to implement the goals identified
within. It also needs a willingness in our local government to
listen to the needs and aspirations of those who live and work
in the vi llage.
The Parish
Plan Committee will continue to meet occasionally to help oversee
the implementation and support the groups which are formed to take
the action forward.
We recognise
the need for a balanced and sustainable community. We have separated
out the Plan into the main interest areas but these areas are not
to be viewed in isolation. For example, the heritage
of the village is vital for the tourism industry which supports the economic regeneration;
adequate services and infrastructure and sound development management
underpin everything. To that end, all the issues raised in this
Parish Plan need to be viewed as part of a whole; this is a Plan
for the future and not just a list of “more things to do”.
We need to ensure that the Parish Council when it takes the lead
in managing the outcomes of this Plan does so in a “joined
up” manner and looks at the totality and not just the individual
elements.
The
Future
If this
Plan is successful in its aims, and we are confident that it will
be, then we can look forward, with a greater degree of security,
that our village will maintain its charm, attractiveness, vitality
and prosperity. We felt it appropriate, then, to start this Plan
with a newspaper article from 2020 about the Woodhall Spa of that
time, as it could be.
David
Clarke
For the Woodhall Spa Parish Plan Steering Committee
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