Residents Chance To Have A Say

Residents of Helmdon and surrounding villages have been given a chance to have their say with the release of a village survey.

The questionnaires were circulated last weekend as part of the Helmdon Parish Plan, part of the Governments Vital Villages programme, for which Helmdon was awarded a £4,000 grant last year.

They will be collecting the surveys next weekend, on January 24 and 25.

The release of the survey follows on from the success of the Future Needs Day held last summer at the village school.

The Parish plan Steering Group has formed the survey based on feedback from the day, where residents were asked to put forward the issues that were important to them.

Danny Moody, Chairman of the steering group, has urged everyone in the village who has received a questionnaire to complete and return it so their point of view is known to the group.

He said: "It's about the future needs of the village, asking questions like do you use the bus services, do you think there should be more houses, and what do you think of the atmosphere in the village?

"We have already had some returned!

"Everybody's talking about it and have said they will do it, so we're hoping for a good response".

Giving a brief description of the parish plan, he added: "It's about finding out the future needs of the village and then making sure we can meet them.

"If we can get all the questionnaires back then it will be a month to six weeks to analyse the results.

"We hope to have it (the parish plan) competed by summer, maybe June time, then it's a case of implementing the plan, which can be anything from groups of locals getting together to do something that doesn't cost anything, to things that will require funding and grant applications."

The Brackley Post - 16th January 2004