Consultation

The updated action plan has been developed following a three month consultation process, which took place from August 2007. Opinions were sought in a number of ways:

• St Edmundsbury Borough Council’s Rural News magazine (August and October edition) to target parish councils;
• St Edmundsbury Borough Council’s Community Spirit magazine (September edition) to target residents of rural St Edmundsbury;
• St Edmundsbury Borough Council’s Member’s Bulletin to target Rural Ward Members;
• St Edmundsbury Borough Council’s website – separate online questionnaires for young people and adults available from the home page and via the Rural Action Plan and The Scene web pages to target all the community, including schools and youth groups;
• St Edmundsbury Borough Council’s E-teamwork (weekly news bulletin) to target staff who live in rural St Edmundsbury;
• St Edmundsbury Borough Council’s Parish Conference on 19 November 2007 (brainstorming sessions); and
• the Western Suffolk Local Strategic Partnership Annual Conference on 28 November 2007 (a rural issues workshop).

Questionnaire results

We asked the following open questions:

• What do you think is the most difficult issue facing your parish or community?
• Are there ways in which you feel St Edmundsbury could respond to this issue?
• What are the positive features about your parish?
• Has your parish carried out any successful projects which other parishes could learn from?
• What one project do you feel would most benefit your parish?

88 responses were received (some of the responses were collective). The questionnaire responses tell us that the things that most concern people living in a rural area are:

• 1st: speeding traffic
• 2nd: lack of transport
• 3rd (joint): lack of/concern over closure of shops and post offices
• 3rd (joint): traffic volume

And the most popular positive features of living in rural St Edmundsbury are:

• 1st: facilities (for example shop, post office and village hall)
• 2nd: community spirit in their respective village
• 3rd (joint): peacefulness
• 3rd (joint): schools

Parish Conference brainstorming session

Attendees were split into three groups, each group representing a theme from the updated action plan: people, places and prosperity. The groups were briefed with the issues and challenges highlighted in the consultation, and then asked to brainstorm potential projects to address these issues. These project ideas can be found on our website. The session reaffirmed some of the comments made in the consultation and highlighted the challenges of finding appropriate and realistic solutions.

Western Suffolk Local Strategic Partnership rural issues workshop

The rural issues workshop was one of eight workshops on different themes at the Annual Conference. The rural issues group was asked to decide on the top three priorities for rural residents. They decided on the following:

• transport (customer responsive, services to be well communicated, and maps needed to show access to services, cycle routes and so on);
• community planning (creative agenda for communities to refresh parish plans, and so on); and
• a sustainable vision for rural communities is needed (the Western Suffolk Local Strategic Partnership should develop this).

Parish Plans

We have also analysed the actions listed in Parish Plans produced by villages in St Edmundsbury. This information was given by kind permission of Suffolk ACRE.