Parish Council survey 2021

The Parish Council submitted an article In the April Cherry Willingham News describing the work that the council had done over the past year.  Included in the article were a number of questions that residents were asked to complete to give feedback on the council’s work and give opinions on a number of issues under consideration.

The questions were as follows:

1. What do you value the most out of the list of work the Parish Council has done in the last year?
2. Allotments: The Parish Council has been asked to provide allotments.  If viable financially, would you like them to be sited either at “Cherry Fields” or at “Tanfaine” (which is the field we own opposite Janet’s Fenland Nursery and Tearooms) - or not provided at all?
3. Road safety. The Parish Council is committed to find ways of reducing speeding in our village. Possible measures could be: White speed gates at the main entrances to our village; Interactive Speed Signs; campaigning for a 20mph speed limit on our estate roads.  Also, residents have suggested a crossing outside the Pembroke Academy.  What do you think of these ideas?
4. New facilities.  Residents have suggested: installing some low-level multi-play equipment for young children; raised beds for children to grow plants in (both of these at St Paul’s Play area); a skatepark; a fitness trail/outdoor gym equipment at open spaces in the village.  What is your view of these? 
5. Footpaths: If a safe path was developed along Fiskerton Rd going towards Greetwell, would you use it?  Do you have any other suggestions for footpaths and cycleways?
6. What aspects of our village would you like us to improve in the future?

The council received 32 responses. Some tore out the page and added their comments; others chose to email their views or send a letter.  It is clear from the responses that, whilst some were giving their individual opinions, others were expressing their views on behalf of a family or couple.  This information, however, was not asked for, so the responses have been counted as if they were all coming from individuals.

Cllr Barry Robinson volunteered to collate the responses.  People commented directly on the points raised in the article and many also raised other issues or points; these issues have also been included in the collation.  The data was entered onto a spreadsheet allowing the number of respondents to each issue to be totalled.  The total number of responses/comments to each issue prompted for or raised spontaneously is listed in Appendix 1.  Where people have responded to prompts in the questions or the list in the article, these are highlighted in brown.  These issues inevitably have a higher number of responses than other aspects not specifically mentioned in the article.  That said, there are clearly some stand out issues that people supported, with some 25 of the 32 declaring that they would use a safe path to Greetwell and 22 valuing Cherry Fields. 

Some points are only mentioned by one person; the ideas may still be worth consideration, though, as it is likely that others might have commented on the ideas if they had been cited in the article.

The spreadsheet containing the data is in the file “Cherry News Survey 2021 – Responses”.  The response from each respondent is on a separate row so it is possible to see the complete picture.    A shorter version of this, containing only the issues which had 4 or more responses, is included in this document in Appendix 2. 

A short summary of the responses to each question is given below:

Question 1 What do you value the most:

The most valued Parish Council achievements were Cherry Fields with 22 mentions and 4 mentioning litter picking and play equipment.  

Question 2 Allotments:

Respondents were asked to choose between Cherry Fields and Tanfaine as the preferred site.  The overall tally was 12 in favour of Cherry Fields and 11 in favour of Tanfaine.  One person did also suggest the OASIS although that was not given as an option in the question.  7 chose to note that they were in favour of allotments wherever.  One respondent noted they did not want money spent on allotments.

Question 3 Road Safety:

Quite a few people (10) were positive about speed gates but many more (19) were positive about speed signs.  Some (8) also favoured 20mph areas.  There was a very positive endorsement (18) of the idea of a crossing at the Pembroke Academy.  A number of other ideas/issues not in the article were suggested.  4 mentioned speeding on Fiskerton Road and 4 suggested a crossing at Cherry Fields.

Question 4 New Facilities:

12 people suggested that all of the ideas mentioned in the article were good.  There was not massive support identified for any one item.  The Adult Fitness trail was the most popular with 6 positive responses.    

Question 5 Footpaths:

The question asked if people would use a safe footpath towards Greetwell.  With 25 people saying they would use it, this scored the highest of all responses, with only 4 saying they would not use it.  It is not clear if they would use a grass path or only use a tarmacked footpath.  However, it is clear that there is a strong demand for a safe path towards Greetwell.  4 also mentioned that they would like to see a good path extended all the way to the bypass.

Although not mentioned in the article, several (6) commented that they would like to see the village footpaths improved from the poor state some are in.  A further 4 made the comment in response to question 6 that both village roads and footpaths need improvement/repair. 

Question 6 Further Improvements:

No prompts were given for this, but several issues were mentioned by more than one or two people.  As mentioned above, roads and footpaths were given as a point for improvement.  The decay and lack of progress with Roy Bowser’s old farmhouse was highlighted by 3.  One person stated that they would like less money spent on Cherry Fields.  3 people also commented that they would not like to see standard playground equipment being installed at Cherry Fields; rather, they prefer the more natural items down there, such as the mounds and fallen trees in the Scramble Trail.  

Appendix 1 and 2 below