Public Amenities

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

Introduction

This section investigated issues relating to services in the village as well as the ease of access to various health care providers. Questions were asked about attitudes to street cleaning, refuse collection and maintenance of hedges, trees and verges. The village is provided with some street lighting, public phone boxes, play areas for young children as well as sports facilities including tennis courts. There is a large Village Hall with good facilities and with a Social Club attached. West Bergholt recently received a Merit Award in the Essex Best Kept Village Competition. We have our own GP surgery and a pharmacy. The local hospital is approximately 3-4 miles distant.

The questionnaires and surveys sought to ask people and organisations about the quality of the provision of public services and amenities

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Survey Questions

The most relevant surveys to this part of the plan are the household survey and the survey issued to clubs and organisations. All had questions relating to these areas of interest and the response was sufficient to have statistical significance

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Main findings from the surveys

a. Street Cleaning

75% of respondents considered street cleaning to be good or very good. 18% felt it was poor or very poor.

Comments included: - Effects of dog fouling and residue from hedge flailing

b. Maintenance of hedges, trees and verges

59% felt this maintenance to be good or very good.  Nearly 30% thought it was poor or very poor.

Comments included:- grass verges poorly maintained, trees and hedges overhanging footpaths (pavements), footpaths (pavements) could be tidied up, paths and verges in Church Close need attention, maintenance of area at conjunction of allotments and Albany Close, householders should cut back overhanging shrubs from gardens, native hedgerows disappearing with overgrowth of ivy, residue from hedge flailing never cleared.

c. Refuse Collection

93% of respondents thought refuse collection was good or very good.

Comments: - one person commented on refuse left behind on roads by refuse collectors, there was also a suggestion that more recycling was needed, in particular plastics.

d. Public Phone boxes

68% of respondents had no view on this subject, 15% considered this amenity poor or very poor. No specific comments were made. It could be argued that with widespread use of mobile phones and email, public phone boxes are not a priority. However for the 30% who felt that the availability of phone boxes was good or very good, it would seem that phone boxes are still an important communication amenity

e. Broadband coverage

47% had no view or did not answer this section. 30% considered broadband coverage good or very good. 23% felt it was poor or very poor.

Comments: - 3 comments made stated that broadband was too slow and intermittent.

f. Street Lighting

This subject has often brought controversy and the results of this survey are no different. 40% considered street lighting in the village to be good or very good. 38% felt it was poor or very poor. 18% of respondents had no view or did not answer. It would be useful to correlate these positive and negative responses with their different locations in the village.

In terms of detailed comments, twice as many comments related to no increase in street lighting as those who felt more was needed.

g. Sports facilities

73% rated the sports facilities, including tennis courts, as good or very good. 8% felt they were poor or very poor. 23% had no view or did not respond.

Detailed comments highlighted nothing for children 9-16 years.

The MUGA should be more available for other activities such as Basketball. Other clubs mentioned as desirable included table tennis, skate park, and hockey. Finally the problem of trespassing and vandalism at the tennis courts was also mentioned.

h. Children’s play areas and Young People’s Activities

Most respondents were positive about the three formal play areas. With 80% considering that they were good or very good. and only 8% thinking that they were poor or very poor.

Detailed comments revealed that the play area on the Lorkin Daniel field needs fencing, the play area in Pirie Road is run down, equipment is rusty/dangerous and the area should be better cleaned and maintained.

The play area on the Lorkin Danield field attracts older youths and it was felt that they should keep out of play area particularly at night. This play area often needs cleaning. Young people were critical about the lack of a Youth Centre and that there were insufficient clubs available to them locally. It was suggested that the Orpen Hall could be used as a venue for occasional music events. There is a need for an informal meeting area or shelter.

i. Healthcare

In general access to healthcare providers was relatively easy for the majority of respondents. There are specific variations.

93% said that access to a doctor was easy or quite easy and for the chemist the figure rose to 96%.

Only 27% of respondents said that access to chiropodist was easy or very easy, 9% said it was not very easy or difficult. Nearly 64% did not know about access or did not answer the question, which suggests that no one in the household had the need to access a chiropodist.

The figures for ease of access to a dentist are that 62% thought access was very easy or quite easy and over 14% finding access not very easy or difficult. 12% did not know or did not answer

78% had very or quite easy access to an optician with just over 11% finding access not very easy or difficult.

Hospital access was deemed to be very or quite easy by 84% of respondents and 14% finding it difficult or not very easy.

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Issues emerging from the surveys

a. Household

1. Condition of street scene, vegetation, dog fouling, street lighting.
2. Recycling.
3. Broadband.
4. Facilities for younger people.
5. Specialist healthcare services and transport provision to hospitals.

b. Organisations

1. Promote local healthcare services eg Dentist.
2. Street scene and maintenance of streets.
3. Hospital access.

c. Young People

1. Lack of clubs, places of entertainment and sports facilities.
2. Lack of meeting area and youth clubs.

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Establishing Priorities

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

•     High standard of refuse collection, but more could be done on recycling;
•     Broadband is sometimes slow and intermittent;
•     Verges poorly maintained, trees, hedges overhanging pavements;
•     Concern over the provision of sport and leisure activities for children and young people Eg Increase use of available facilities e.g on Poors Land and MUGA;
•     Concern over cleanliness and safety of play areas;
•     Street lighting;
•     Chiropodist and specialist healthcare and hospital access.

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Action Plan

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