UFFINGTON WOOLSTONE & BAULKING Community Led Plan 2015 CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Background 3. Community 4. Environment and Leisure 5. Housing and character 6. Roads and traffic, transport 7. Education 8. Pubs, shop and post office 9. Village hall, museum and Church 10. Communications 11. Employment 12. Health and Crime Appendix 1a: Action plan Table Appendix 1b: Action timeline Appendix 2: CLP group & contributors Maps: Village conservation areas 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This community led plan covers the majority, respondents felt that the three parishes of Uffington, Woolstone and best things about living in Uffington, Baulking. It was compiled under the Woolstone or Baulking are the community, direction of the three parish councils or the leisure and environment and the parish meetings and was led by a steering housing and character of the villages. group of local volunteers. Work on the Conversely, by far the most significant plan started in 2013 with a village meeting, disadvantages to living in our villages followed by many months of engagement appear to be the roads and transport with locals and visitors to understand network with communication, including what are the important issues for our both internal village communications and communities. In late 2014 this formed the communications infrastructure, such as basis for a focussed questionnaire, which mobile phone and broadband services, was issued in early 2015 to all residents also being obvious problems. of the 3 villages, some 430 households, and had a decent 51% response rate. The questionnaire, and indeed this plan, A QUESTIONAIRE OF 430 was structured into the 12 key themes HOUSEHOLDS, WITH A 51% of Community, Environment and leisure, Housing and character, Roads and traffic, RESPONSE RATE transport, Education, Shop, post office and pubs, Village hall, museum and Focussing on the community, local events Church, Communications, Employment appear to be popular, with a large majority and Health and Crime and each member of respondents attending one within the of the steering group took responsibility for last 12 months. The White Horse Show designing a section of the questionnaire is especially important to the villages, and its subsequent write up after the both as a very long standing source of results were collated. The detailed charitable support and as a rewarding questionnaire analysis is available from the collective enterprise involving many local Uffington Parish Council on request. individuals. Concern was raised about The main purpose of the plan is to bringing new villagers into the fold and a provide the three parish councils or parish ‘Welcome Pack’ for new residents was meetings with clear direction on what it seen as an important next step. In addition is that we, the villagers, see as important a large proportion felt that the needs of the for the future of our villages. By a clear elderly are not met by current facilities or 1 1 services and would like to see more done for a given number of houses. A large to support this section of the community. majority made the point that no further In terms of leisure and environment, the development towards White Horse three villages are set in an agricultural Hill should be accepted because this landscape with the distinctive White landscape is highly valued as it connects Horse Hill being a major visual feature. the villages of Uffington and Woolstone, Questionnaire responses show that (and to a lesser extent, Baulking which villagers value this historic landscape and is set a little further to the north) to the indeed, the most common reason for White Horse escarpment and the AONB. coming to live here was quoted as the Weight was given to ensuring the design country way of life. Within the villages of any future housing was done using themselves, it is the street-scape and local materials similar to those used on conservation areas and trees that people other older houses in the village. People value with a majority supporting more felt that any development should come planting of trees. Most people felt no with improved facilities for young people, need for any increase in the relatively low more managed green space and better current levels of street lighting. However, leisure and sports facilities. While nearly flooding is a major concern with over all felt that maintaining a residential feel to 75% of respondents having encountered the villages was vital, there was significant floods across roads and nearly 20% recognition of a need to provide industrial having experienced some flooding of their or work spaces for people who live here. property. Most respondents highly value Nearly all respondents wanted the parish our footpath networks around the villages councils and parish meetings to draw but do not want more pavements in the on these responses in the formation of a villages. A large majority want better loop Neighbourhood Plan, i.e. to create a formal walks around the parishes, including giving land-use document that would form part of consideration to reopening the old canal the Statutory Plan. towpath. The final area that people are particularly CONCERNS INclUDE keen on is the housing and character of DEVELOPMENT, ROADS the 3 villages. Of the 169 comments made AND TRANSPORT LINKS, in response to the question about what are the main issues facing your village, PROTECTING THE AONB AND over 80% relate to future development. RELIabILITY OF SERVICES Concerns centre around increased traffic and parking, strain on existing facilities, Our community is very concerned about flooding and drainage, the potential to roads and transport links with the state spoil the character of the villages and the of the roads in relation to pot holes being impact on the environment and landscape. a common theme. Speeding and volume Responses to the survey suggest that of traffic is also a significant concern with the preferred types of new housing are a 20mph speed limit along with traffic sheltered housing for the elderly and calming, particularly near the school and affordable housing, plus houses with museum, and a one way route around a range of sizes. Most prefer to see a Uffington being particularly mentioned. lower density for future housing than is 99% of respondents use a car as their the norm today, and therefore accept main transport with most people unable that more sites may need to be identified to rely on buses as they do not go when 2 and where they want. Buses to Didcot station for commuting and improving the frequency of the present two local bus services and widening their destinations to Faringdon and Swindon more regularly were mentioned as being useful. People also said they would support the reopening of Uffington Station for access to the rail network. Finally, communication was cited as a key concern – village websites were seen as needing improvement and a majority want better email links throughout the villages. Nearly 25% of people struggle to use their broadband for daily requirements but the future plans for fibre broadband will help mitigate this. Villagers find mobile phone coverage very poor throughout the parishes. In summary the community led plan has been a well supported endeavour which captures key strengths and weaknesses of our community, as viewed through the eyes of the residents. It provides clear indications to the Parish Councils and Meetings of how to take the villages forward and should serve as a record to help future decision making, particularly should development and investment in the villages become available. The Parish Council and Meetings need to focus on bringing new villagers into the fold and caring for the elderly, they need to protect our historic landscape and trees and better manage flooding. They need to carefully manage the future development of the villages through completion of a Neighbourhood Plan and should give consideration to the footpath networks to improve access to the environment in which we live. They should focus on traffic management and should engage with local bus services to make them more appealing to residents. Finally they should look at communications access through both internet and mobile phone provision. 3 1. INTRODUCTION Community led planning has always been Occupations cover a wide spectrum from at the heart of rural communities. From the self-employed, employed, unemployed, informal versions in bygone generations retired, student etc. The community has to the Parish and Community Plans of a complete mix of people from those recent decades, Community Led Plans set who have recently moved to the village to out a vision of how a community wants to those who have lived here for many years. develop and progress and identifies the This broad mix of respondents suggests actions needed to achieve it. that the sample of 51% who completed In 2013, Uffington, Woolstone and Baulking the questionnaire is likely to be a good agreed to work together to generate this representation of the total population. plan, the last village-wide plan having It is the country way of life that has been formulated in 1974. The CLP incentivised over half of respondents to live Steering Group canvassed views from here, the next biggest driver being work or locals, visitors, tourists, parents, church employment. attendees, pub goers, shop users, walkers By a clear majority, respondents felt and cyclists to name but some of the that the three best things about living groups engaged with. in Uffington, Woolstone or Baulking Their responses informed a questionnaire are the community, the housing and distributed in March 2015 to all 428 character of the villages and the leisure households in the three villages. 51% of and environment. Conversely, by far the villagers responded. 74% of respondents most significant disadvantage to living in were from Uffington, 11% from Woolstone our villages appears to be the roads and and 15% from Baulking, which broadly transport network with communication, reflects the differing sizes of the 3 villages.