Producing the Parish Plan
The decision to produce a Parish Plan was taken in the summer of 2003 and the inaugural meeting took place on 24 September 2003 at which a steering committee was set up, comprising of some Parish Councillors and interested local residents, under the chairmanship of Cllr Ken Rogers. The project has been funded by the Countryside Agency through the provision of a Parish Plan Grant.
By October 2003, the group had set up two sub-groups, one to investigate the issues likely to feature and another to take on the work of raising awareness and disseminating information. All local businesses and societies were identified and contacted offering them the opportunity to identify what they saw as the key areas for the plan to focus on. Public meetings were held at which presentations were given to inform the community of what was being undertaken. After research on other efforts and in the light of the initial consultation, work was commenced to draw up a questionnaire that would be sent to every household. The questionnaire was distributed via the Town Crier, with large print versions available from the Town Hall; it was also possible to reply on line at www.wolsingham.net. A separate questionnaire aimed at younger people was also organised and the findings passed on to the Steering Group
By July 2004, 307 responses had been analysed and the Steering Group then organised groups to work on specific issues that had been identified as the priority areas – these being the seven main sections of the Plan. During the course of this work, a Parking Survey was commissioned to obtain recent data on one major area of concern. Over the lifetime of the Steering Group, representatives from the police, the County and District Councils provided valuable input to the process.
By January 2005, a draft plan was
produced for inspection by and comment from the community. In the light of such
comments, the draft was fine tuned to produce the final document. The finished
document appears in two formats; a 2 page A4 version outlining the main thrust
and a more lengthy document which includes all survey data and information
collected during the process. The former is freely available to all residents,
the latter available at a cost of £5.