Plan B: feedback from ‘Choose your village’ component of the Open meeting 20th May 2023
In a reassuring level of agreement in the community, an initial analysis of the just over 50 completed 'Choose your Village!' forms showed very strong support for a friendly and safe village, and very little support for the concept of being a suburb of .... anywhere!
Bledington as a diverse and connected community resonated well. The concepts of the village as either a 'chocolate box or 'retirement' village were not popular, and there is a range of views and some ambivalence about growth (where there was the widest range of scoring) and a village that encouraged business innovation. The responses to 'Your Own Ideal Image' are more difficult to summarise quickly, but again there was emphasis on a caring, friendly, and sustainable community, but also one that provided housing for young and old alike, and preference for residential housing over holiday lets. But as many commented, the options were not mutually exclusive.
Comments or ‘Your Own Ideal Image’: (N = 34) In no particular order
‘families’; ‘children friendly’; ‘caring, open’; ‘welcoming’; ‘helpful’; ‘full of people who smile and say hello’; ‘wellbeing village’; ‘dog walking friendly’; ‘safe, friendly, pragmatic’; ‘quality community’; ‘friendly and caring’ (2); ‘vibrant community’; ‘active village’; ‘sustainable village’ (4); ‘well-functioning for the future’; ‘full time residents’; ‘allowing young to purchase houses, or elderly who have links to village at a discounted rate’; ‘important that village has both young and old residents’; ‘but not all Airbnb’s’; ‘somehow restrict short term lets’; ‘full time residents!!!’; ‘affordable housing, infill only’; ‘a growing village but no social housing’; ‘growing as in activities and controlled development’; ‘wildlife /conservation village’ (2); ‘working village’; ‘transport = connectivity’ (3); ‘good buses’;