ADDINGHAM CIVIC SOCIETY

Preliminary Report on the Membership Consultation 2008

INTRODUCTION

Your committee wished to get a clearer picture of what is important to our members to help in developing a strategic plan for the Civic Society. As part of that process four key themes had already been identified which it was believed the Society should be developing:–

1. Conservation of what is of value in the village
2. Protection of what gives the village its character
3. Enhancement of the local environment
4. Communication with members and others

MEMBERSHIP CONSULTATION

A survey was carried out in order to better understand the issues that concern the members, and to help the Committee to contribute to other work that is going on in the area. It may be noted here that the Committee were aware that the Parish Council might be carrying out a survey of the whole village at some point and emphasised that it was not the intention to duplicate that work, which might be expected to cover a much wider range of issues, but did want to ensure that the things that are important to the members of the Civic would be taken into account in any wider consultations.

A questionnaire was compiled by a small sub-group of the Committee, and once it had been approved by the Committee as a whole, one copy of the questionnaire was distributed with the May Newsletter to each household which included one or more members. Each copy of the questionnaire was given a serial number and members were asked not to photocopy the questionnaire but to ask for additional copies if two or more members at any given address wished to express their individual views.

The questionnaire contained thirty-two statements, divided into four topics. Members were asked to read each statement and to consider how important they thought it is on a scale from ‘Very High’ to ‘Very Low’; each statement was to be read on its own and not rated against the other statements. The questionnaire also included a separate space so that members could include any other things which they thought the Committee should be considering.

Members were asked to return completed questionnaires by 17th May.

ANALYSIS OF THE COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRES

The information from the completed questionnaires was analysed using a computerised spreadsheet created in Microsoft Excel. The thirty-two statements, in four topic groups, formed the rows of the spreadsheet and each completed questionnaire formed one column. The number of the questionnaire was recorded at the top of the column and on each row of the column the score (representing ‘Importance’) was entered against each statement using the numbers 1 to 5 (5 for ‘Very High’ and 1 for ‘Very Low’). If the questionnaire contained no marking against a particular statement, no number was entered in the relevant row. After all of the information had been entered, the spreadsheet was used to calculate the total score for each statement and the number of responses to the statement (blanks were not counted). From these two numbers the average ‘score’ for the importance of each statement was calculated and the results depicted graphically.

RESULTS

Over the coming weeks and months the Committee will be looking at and interpreting the results from the survey closely. However it is important to present the results and the immediate conclusions here, as follows.

Clearly members do not feel particularly strongly about most of these statements; ‘local play areas for the under 8’s’ and ‘easy access to picnic areas’ are least important, whilst ‘a multi-purpose sports pavilion and ‘improved
footpath access’ are of greater interest and feeling.

Compared with the statements in the topic “The Village and Its Facilities”, members feel that all of the statements concerned with Conservation are of great importance with “Protecting open spaces” and “Keeping existing footpaths open and maintained” heading the list.

Concerning “Transport and Traffic” members placed least importance on increasing the number of pedestrian crossings in the village, and most importance on “greater provision of short term shoppers parking during the day” and “Improved timing of bus links to Ilkley station”.

As with the Conservation topic, members felt that all of the statements about the Future were of above-average importance, with “Actively encourage new shops and businesses” and “Greater consideration of brown field sites for any new building” heading the list.

CONCLUSION

Although there is much work still to be done to understand and implement the results of the survey, the Committee felt it important to present the results and the preliminary conclusions to the membership as soon as possible. The Committee wishes to than the membership for taking time to complete the questionnaires; without this, they would not be able to come to an informed view on the topics that concern members. Many thanks to you all !