Democracy & Council Services

•     Introduction
•     Survey Questions
•     Main Findings
•     Issues
•     Priorities
•     Action Plan

Introduction

This section of the plan is concerned with the way in which people in the village can access services provided by the Parish Council and other public providers such as the County and Borough Councils. It is also concerned with what might be termed “the village voice” and how local issues and concerns can be voiced.

The village has a Parish Council (PC) which conducts itself in a traditional manner with monthly meetings (open to the public) with a series of sub committees which deal with day to day matters. The Parish area is represented by eleven Parish Councillors, two Borough Councillors and one County Councillor.

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Survey Questions

The most relevant surveys to this area of the plan are the household survey and that distributed to village organisations. Both of these had specific questions relating to these areas of interest.

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Main findings

a. Knowledge about PC

Knowledge of the Parish Council and its functions is generally good with over 70% of villagers know what the PC does although 75% have never attended a meeting. 60% of respondents in the survey knew where the dates of meetings are published.

b. How PC Communicate

The Bulletin and newsletters are the most appropriate forms of communication cited by respondents as their preferred source of information.

c. PC top Priorities

When asked what the priorities of the PC should be, respondents made numerous suggestions, the top five of which are listed below (figures in brackets are the number of times a suggestion was made).

1. Traffic issues (50)
2. Environmental enhancements (23)
3. Community Safety issues (16)
4. Planning and Development (13)
5. Children and Teenagers (11)

d. Ease of obtaining information

The questionnaire asked people to consider how easy access to information about council services was, and the following summary appears below:

•     Planning: Over 50% think quite easy or easy
•     Education: 35% think quite easy or easy, but over 50% don’t know
•     Social services: over 30% think quite easy or easy, but over 50% don’t know
•     Highways: 35% think quite easy or easy, but over 40% don’t know

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Issues emerging from the surveys

a. Households

Households appear well informed about the role of the Parish Council and have definite ideas about traffic and environmental matters.

b. Village Organisations

Organisations consulted felt that the village enjoyed a good website with an excellent Bulletin and Parish magazine and that there was good contact with the Parish Council. By contract organisations felt that the Borough and County Councils seemed more remote. Young people should be encouraged onto the Parish Council in some way.

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Top issues to take further

The top areas to take forward from this area of the plan were established through the survey of priorities held in spring 2008.

Top 5 issues are in generic/specific terms:

•     Parish Council to develop policies and priorities for
  •     Traffic issues
  •     Environmental enhancements
  •     Community Safety issues
  •     Planning and Development
  •     Children and Teenagers
•     Improve PC communication
•     Improved village participation in PC activities

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Action Plan

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Copyright © 2007 West Bergholt Parish Council
Last modified: 01-Dec-2008