July 04th, 2023

Tockwith with Wilstrop Parish Survey
 
 
THE RESULTS…
 
Analysis of your responses to the survey questionnaire has yielded the following results and conclusions.
 
Part 1 – Thinking about the infrastructure of the Parish
No surprises here many might say.  Reasonably high levels of satisfaction were with street lighting and refuse/recycling collections.  The highest levels of dissatisfaction related to public transport and the provision of practical footpaths and cycleways (to places of work or transport links).  This was supported in general comments where the condition of roads and pavements were also highlighted as a concern.  All these of course are outside the control of the community, but they are to be elevated to Parish Council and North Yorkshire Council levels and followed up by representatives of the Community Plan team.
 
Part 2 – Thinking about social amenities across the Parish
There was a reasonable level of satisfaction across age groups with the provision of facilities and community groups.  However, this may have resulted from mainly adult responses.  It is proposed to investigate further by getting specific inputs from children and teenagers.  There was some dissatisfaction with the availability of public green spaces.  Walking was the clear leader in the type of recreational activity enjoyed by residents, followed by cycling, running and other sports.
 
Part 3 – Thinking about the environment
 People were asked to rank six different categories of issue within the environment of the Parish and indicate their levels of concern.  Overall, there was not much concern about care of hedges, trees and greens/verges.  Similarly, noise and air pollution and fly-tipping were not of a high concern.  Unsurprising maybe, dog fouling and litter were top areas of concern.  The Community Plan team will be looking further into these and will be bringing an action plan forward.
 
 
 
Part 4 – Our Village, Our Future
This section covered a list of 23 suggested priorities for action with people selecting their top 5 and ranking them in order of importance to themselves.  The resulting top 10 items were:
 
1.   Better public transport
2.   Footpath & cycleway improvement
3.   Café/coffee shop
4.   Tree, wildflower, bulb planting across the parish
5.   Improved provision for existing native wildlife
6.   A community bus
7.   Carbon-neutral initiatives
8.   More public green spaces
9.   Youth provision/youth club
10. Running/walking track
 
These areas were largely supported by general comments, although the numbers of responses here was quite low.
 
Again, some of these subjects are beyond the remit of the Community Plan and will be escalated to the appropriate authorities.  Others, the community itself may well be able to influence and implement.  It is anticipated to engage with interested residents to take part in discussions or forums as to how best to take them forward.
 
Part 5 – Communication
Interestingly, social media was by far the most popular source of parish information preferred by 68% of respondents.  Word of mouth, parish magazine, lampposts and notice boards were used fairly equally (28-36%).
 
Final Question – what do residents like about our villages?
Clearly, people liked the community feel, nice countryside, amenities (shop, pubs, GP, school).  There were also positives about access to other nearby towns and cities. Not so positive were the concerns about the erosion of these qualities by the neighbourhood growing in size through housing developments. 

Full report at:  www. https://tockwithcommunity.weebly.com
Comments/questions to: [email protected]

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