East Harnham Community Needs Survey – Results Overview
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East Harnham Community Needs Survey – Summary Results Overview Osmund Fields & Rowbarrow Residents Association (OFRRA) November 2011 Executive summary Following the planning application submitted by the East Harnham Community Association (EHCA) in November 2010, local residents voiced significant concerns over the new plans, and questioned whether any new centre was wanted or needed by the community, and if it would be financially viable. It was agreed that further data was needed to establish if there was a need for a new centre. The Osmund Fields and Rowbarrow Resident’s Association (OFRRA) worked with EHCA to develop a questionnaire that would be given to local residents. The survey was agreed by both parties in the presence of the council, but EHCA later opted out of the survey process; OFRRA then ran the agreed survey without any content changes. The results showed that 74.6% of local residents did not want a new hall built, and would rather the S.106 funds were spent on enhancing existing facilities. Furthermore, only 5.4% have used facilities in the last 12 months and intend to keep using facilities in the next 12 months and want a new centre at Osmund Fields. This appears to suggest that even amongst those who expressed a desire for a new centre, there are a significant proportion who are unlikely to make use of it if it were built. The council can have 95% confidence that the results of this survey of 370 households represents the views of East Harnham residents with no greater than a +/- 3.75% margin of error. We call on the council to respect the wishes of local residents and work with the local community and the existing centres to best to meet the needs of the community. 1. Osmund Fields & Rowbarrow Residents Association (OFRRA) 1.1. In January 2011, the new residents of Osmund Fields and the existing Rowbarrow resident’s association were drawn together as a result of a planning application for a new community centre on the Green at Osmund Fields. 1.2. On the 7th September 2011 this joint team was formalised at the inaugural AGM as the Osmund Fields and Rowbarrow Resident’s Association (OFRRA). At the AGM, the official constitution was adopted, and the 2011-2012 Executive Committee was elected. 1 2. History of the Process and Composition of the Survey 2.1. The East Harnham Community Association (EHCA) was formed in 2003 with the objectives1 stated below: 1. To promote the benefit of the inhabitants of East Harnham and the neighbourhood together defined by Britford land and Coombe road without distinction of sex, sexual orientation ,race or of political, religious or other opinions, by associating together the said inhabitants and the local authorities, voluntary and other organisations in a common effort to advance education and to provide facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation and leisure time occupation with the object of improving the conditions of life for the said inhabitants; 2. To establish, or secure the establishment of, a community centre and to maintain and manage the same (whether alone or in co-operation with any local authority or other person or body) in furtherance of these objects. 3. To promote such other charitable purposes as may from time to time be determined. 2.2. In 2009, the EHCA conducted a postal survey to 1100 homes within East Harnham and received 81 responses, of which 70 were in favour of a new centre being built. Following on from this, in November 2010 the EHCA filed a planning application2 for a new community centre on the Green at Osmund Fields. Over 100 local residents voiced concerns around many aspects of the plans; due process was not followed, and many local residents questioned whether another centre was actually needed. The planning application was subsequently withdrawn as a result of a technicality. At this point EHCA agreed to meet with local residents. 2.3. A joint meeting was held on 25 January between OFRRA and the EHCA. Brian Dalton of Salisbury and Wiltshire Council and Cheryl Hill of Salisbury City Council also attended. At this meeting, it was mutually agreed that there was a requirement to undertake a new survey to establish the “need” amongst East Harnham residents for a new community centre as the postal survey in 2009 was carried out before there were any residents at Osmund Fields and the previous response rate was only 7.4%; too low to be considered a reliable indicator of community opinion. There was general agreement that a new and more comprehensive survey should be undertaken prior to any further planning application being filed. 2.4. David Scrace, Chair of the EHCA, stated that he would ask their architect to halt work in the interim and stated to The Salisbury Journal on 17th March: 1 The objectives cited are those formally logged with the charities commission 2 Planning application number S/2010/1717 2 “It may be that we come up with a need for a smaller centre or it may be that we discover that the community has no need for another community centre at all. We are open to see what the survey reveals”. 2.5. The format, content and methodology of the final survey was the subject of considerable constructive debate between the OFRRA and EHCA over the period from April to August 2011. To ensure the survey created was balanced and fair from both sides, the process of agreeing the questions, content and areas to be surveyed was conducted in the presence of Annie Scadden of Salisbury City Council. The approach and areas to be surveyed were also validated with Richard Hughes (Senior Planner, Salisbury) of Wiltshire Council. The survey took several months to plan, to ensure that all stakeholders were in agreement on the content. In particular it was important to ensure the appropriate uses of the Section 106 funds were agreed with the Council. The allocable uses were confirmed by Richard Hughes3. The final format and questions were agreed by all parties at a meeting in the Guildhall between the OFRRA, EHCA and Annie Scadden on 12th August. The EHCA acknowledged agreement to the survey content via an email from David Stone dated 16th August. 2.6. On 23rd August, EHCA opted to withdraw from the process and the OFRRA decided to conduct the survey at its own expense, in order to ensure that a valid body of data was collected prior to any further use of public funds and that the community view was thoroughly documented. To ensure validity, the same survey content that had been agreed on the 23rd August was used without change (apart from the removal of the EHCA title from the questionnaire). 3. Methodology 3.1. The guiding principle during the design and conduct of the survey was how best to capture the needs of the community in an unbiased way without diversifying into other strands, such as overall size or capacity for a hall if it were built. It must therefore be clearly emphasised that the questionnaire was designed to simply address whether or not there is a need for a new community hall in East Harnham. 3.2. Each of the questions asked within the questionnaire were specifically designed to complement each other, as this provides greater scope for analysis, whilst also having the ability in some areas to be analysed independently. Collection of personal details, resulting in being able to identify individuals or households by name was deemed inappropriate on data protection grounds. In order to identify neighbourhood areas, it was decided to colour code questionnaires to allow further statistical analysis. Permission was also sought from those surveyed to allow their address (without their name) to be included on a register to allow the council to confirm that OFRRA surveyed the stated areas. 3 Email Hughes/Stagg dated 4th July 2011 3 Question 1 allowed the survey to capture the distribution of ages within the local population, to aid both understanding of the results by age group, but also to provide data on what activities are of most interest to each age group surveyed; Question 2 sought to understand what facilities are currently in use, and how often residents use them; Question 3 was asked to understand what problems, if any, were experienced by local residents when attempting to book a community hall; Question 4 asked residents what activities they have undertaken in the past twelve months, and what activities they plan to do in the next twelve months. Asking this was deemed pivotal to the survey result as past behaviour is often a better predictor of future behaviours than simply asking people directly; direct questioning increases the potential for the respondent to provide a socially desirable answer rather than what they will realistically do. Therefore asking this question both directly and indirectly is very useful in understanding likely future usage. Question 5 gave the local residents their say as to what they believe is the best use of the S.106 funds, but limited by the possible options permitted by the S.106 agreements, as agreed with the Council; Question 6 was ultimately the question the entire survey was working towards, and asks the overall question directly whether they felt there was a need for a new community facility in East Harnham. 3.3. It was decided to conduct the survey door-to-door to maximise the response rate and to therefore best reflect the views of residents. 4. Conduct of the Survey 4.1. The survey was carried out between 30th August and 25th September 2011.