A PLAN FOR DENTDALE - THE DENTDALE PARISH PLAN

To email the Parish Plan, click here dentpp@btinternet.com
 

Dentdale Parish Plan: What have we achieved so far?

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A Plan for Dentdale

Opinions and ideas about the future of Dentdale are still being collected for the Dentdale Parish Plan.  Meetings took place before Christmas with members of the farming community and local businesses to collect their views, and school children at Dent Primary school as well as secondary school students were also involved in giving their opinions.  In January, a questionnaire was delivered to every household and these have now been returned. 

It will take a few weeks to analyse all this information and produce a clear view of what all the different sections of the community want for Dentdale’s future.  In the meantime, here are some of the things that people have said:

Putting together a plan for the future like this takes time to do thoroughly, and a lot of work has gone on in the last few months, including:

• Research: Extensive research has been completed to produce an economic, environmental and social profile for Dentdale as a base-line for the survey. Four areas of focus were agreed for the plan, namely

1.       Farming and the environment

2.       Businesses and the economy

3.       Social and community issues and services

4.       Recreation and culture

• Funding: Approval has been gained for £2400 worth of grants, to pay for the questionnaire and public meetings
• Events: A well received stand was staged at the Dentdale Show and hosted by 10 volunteers – feedback was received from 34 visitors which will be incorporated into the report.

·         Questionnaire: The questionnaire was written, developed, piloted and distributed.

A lot of people have contributed their time and effort to achieve all this, so we’re now ready for the next stage – analysing all the views we’re collecting and writing them up in a report.  When this has been done there will be a public meeting to discuss both the findings of all the surveys and the priorities for action.

October 2007

Events

·         Staged a stand at the Dentdale Show hosted by 10 volunteers – well received

·         Received feedback from 34 visitors to the stand via pamphlets distributed on the stand and via the Dentdale Parish Plan e-mail address (dentpp@btinternet.com). Comments will be incorporated into the report.

Survey groups

·         Children/Youth

Up to 11 years: The children’s’ ideas will be collected via drawings, pictures, etc. Working with Dent Primary School

11 -22 years: Asking for their thoughts through use of a ‘Graffitti Wall’. Will use the school buses to distribute material

Dates to be confirmed

·         Farmers – ‘Pie & Pint’ event scheduled at Whernside  Manor for December 1st

·         Businesses – invitation being issued to all business to attend an event at ‘ Stone Close’ on Nov 6 or 15 (dates to be confirmed)

Questionnaire

·         Produced a first draft of the questionnaire which has been reviewed and 2^nd draft currently being developed

August 2007

·         Completed extensive research to produce an economic, environmental and social profile for Dentdale as a base-line for the survey

·         Agreed 4 areas of focus for the plan, namely Farming and the environment; Businesses and the economy; Social and Community Issues and Services and Recreation and Culture

·         Developed publicity material for the project including a logo, banner and pamphlet

·         Extended awareness of the project through the working groups, Over 60s and the farming community and also via ‘Lookaround’ article

·         Gained approval for £2400 worth of grants – 100% success rate with applications

·         Implemented all procedures for running the project including officers, organisation, terms of reference and budget

Dent Show and Dent Gala

The Dentdale Plan will have stands at the Dent Show and the Dent Gala over the August Bank Holiday week end in order to start finding out:

• what you value about Dentdale
• what problems and opportunities you think it has
• how you would like it to develop in the future

This will be the first of a number of ways we will be gathering people’s views.  We want to know everyone’s ideas for the future of the Dale – so come along and talk to us and tell us what you think. 

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A Plan for Dentdale

Work has now started on the Plan for Dentdale.  Local residents and the Parish Council will be drawing this up over the next year or so based on extensive consultations and discussions with all members and all sections of the community.  At the end of the consultations, a plan will be produced for the future development of the Dale which will be used by the Parish Council and other organisations as a basis for action.

The first part of the process has been to get together a small number of people to form a steering group to oversee the whole process.  They have now met for the first time, and have started to set up a number of working groups involving everyone else who has offered to help, in order to develop different parts of the plan.  So far, over 30 people have said they would like to be involved in one way or another.

These working groups and their leaders are as follows:

Research – Peter Boyles:  There is a lot relevant information available about the Dale, and a number of other organisations have produced plans in the past which may be relevant. This group will draw together information from all these sources.

Survey (Questionnaire) – Peter Knapton:  The final plan will be based on the opinions of everyone who lives here, and one of the ways that will be used to find out their views will be a general questionnaire, which this group will organise.

Survey (Children, teenagers and families) – Helen Winn:  This group will be collecting the opinions of the younger members of the community and their families, and devising ways to do so other than questionnaires.

Survey (Businesses and the local economy) – Janet Browning:  The views of local businesses on the future of the local economy will be the focus for this group.

Survey (Farming) – Elaine Johnson:  This is not a group at present, but Elaine will be seeking the views of those who work in farming in order to make sure their views are represented.

Publicity and Media – Jock Cairns:  This group will keep people informed about the progress of the plan, and be responsible for publicising the outcome.

Dent Show – Kate Roberts:  This group will be looking for ways to seek out people’s views at Dent Show.

Report writing and editing – Heather Fraser:  The outcome of the plan will be a written report and an action plan, and this group will be responsible for writing it.

All these groups will be holding their first meeting in the next few weeks, after which the steering group will meet again in August.  If anyone who has not put their name forward already would like to be involved in any of the working groups, they will be very welcome to do so.  Please contact Jock Cairns on 25655 for more information.