An opportunity for residents to shape their Community Action Plan: St Margarets Alliance Residents’ Survey Results Night, Tuesday 15th September

St Margarets residents will be able to find out the results of The St Margarets Alliance Residents’ Survey on Tuesday, 15th September at the Winchester Hall, Turk’s Head. The evening kicks off at 7.30pm and is expected to finish by 9pm.

As well as finding out which issues came out ‘top’ for residents, attendees will have the opportunity to discuss the results, find out more about Community Action Plans and what they can achieve, and start to shape their own St Margarets Community Action Plan in more detail.

While the industry norm for response to this type of survey is around 4-5, the Alliance Residents’ Survey has achieved a response of 10, with many residents writing in detail where free-form comments were invited.

The Survey is set up to obtain pure, unbiased data as the basis for the Community Action Plan. For this first stage of the survey, residents were asked to comment on a wide range of topics covering every aspect of their local environment, to indicate priorities for the Action Plan. It then asked them to highlight those which they believe need urgent attention.

A second stage survey, which will be available to complete on the Results Night, and online, will feed back the top issues raised, along with specific actions suggested by the respondents’ more detailed comments. This will enable residents to formulate the plan in more detail. The views of under-represented groups will also be specifically sought at this second stage.

Community Action Plans are central to the Sustainable Communities Act (SCA) of 20007, which aims to create a more local form of democracy. The Plans are approved by the Secretary of State and funded from central government and community funds. Their aim is to help communities to shape their economic, social and environmental well-being.

It is believed that the Alliance is the only group generating pure data as part of a Community Action Plan and Alliance are working with the Environmental Law Foundation on the development of the St Margarets Community Action Plan to create a ‘template’ for plans elsewhere in the UK.

More information about Community Action Plans and Alliance can be found on the Alliance website www.stmargaretsalliance.com