Shops & Facilities

•     Introduction
•     The Surveys
•     Results from the Surveys
•     Issues
•     Priorities
•     Action Plan

Introduction

This section was designed to ascertain how well local shops and facilities met local needs.

Within the village we have two general stores, including a post office in the Coop. There is also a hairdresser, three public houses and the mobile library visits once a fortnight and stops at several key positions round the village. 52 businesses were identified as operating from the village as part of our “Business questionnaire” and we wanted to find out how well these local trades were being used.

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The Surveys

The most relevant surveys to this part of the plan are the household survey, the survey issued to clubs and organisations and the survey distributed to businesses. All had questions relating to shops and facilities and the response was sufficient to have statistical significance.

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Results from the surveys

a. Local Shops

Local shops appeared to be well used for food, other retail shopping and postal services with the majority of households using these at least on a regular basis (over 80% of households fell into this category). Banking, hairdressing, pubs and the mobile library are used less frequently.

In terms of meeting people’s needs the areas where households have to go elsewhere appear to be non-food retail banking and hairdressing facilities (nearly 50% of households fell into this category).

According to the Organisation Survey residents are fortunate to have the Coop, Post Office, Chemist, Cash machine and cash back facility at the Coop.

Businesses felt that there were insufficient numbers of shops to enable local commercial activities to thrive.

Many suggestions were made for other shops and facilities which included DIY supplies, fish and chip shop van, bakery, shopping delivery service.

b. Local trades

Local trades people were fairly well used by respondents, with the most popular services used being the taxi service, local plumbers and builders. Several suggestions were made for other trades to be available including washing machine repair and pest control.

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Issues emerging from the surveys

a. Household

1. Range of shops in the village is limited.
2. Need for specialist foods and DIY type supplies.

b. Organisations

1. Access to shops outside the village particularly larger supermarkets causes problems for some.

c. Businesses

1. Lack of a sufficient range of shops to create a thriving business environment.
2. Linkages between businesses and awareness of business offering in the village.

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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

•     Suggestions regarding other shops;
•     Office and small business units;
•     Business Links.

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Action Plan

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