1. H iston & I mpington C ommunity A ppraisal P roject Community Appraisal - a View from Histon & Impington Denis W Payne Group Chair

2. H iston & I mpington C ommunity A ppraisal P roject Histon & Impington Two villages - two parishes (and two Councils) but one community A small town? - 3,000+ homes, 7,500 people Well resourced: –two Anglican churches; Methodist; Baptist; Salvation Army –two Post Offices, banks, building society –food/non-food shops; garage (petrol and repair) –Library –Nursery, Infants, Junior schools; Village College –Doctors, dentists –local (private) hospital –35% people work locally (1991); 4000 jobs –sheltered housing provision

3. H iston & I mpington C ommunity A ppraisal P roject Histon & Impington But: –no village hall –no youth club (though uniformed groups exist) –crime & disorder target - youth –no local newsletter/newspaper/village magazine –significant traffic issues - just north of A14, north of Cambridge –suffering from development pressures - and threats –lacking public open space - what there is isn’t necessarily where people are –environment - litter, grass cutting, planting schemes –Parish Governance?

4. H iston & I mpington C ommunity A ppraisal P roject Project Parish Council initiated - significant ongoing contribution Support of ACRE (Deborah Willis) Launch event - team together Launch event drove questionnaire Questionnaire development challenging Distribution and collection June/July 2001 - 974 questionnaires returned; 1773 respondents plus returns from Junior School (~200) and Village College (~170) Data entry time consuming - large team doing this Planning event - May 2002 Money not a problem - Parish Councils, District Council, Lottery etc

5. H iston & I mpington C ommunity A ppraisal P roject Lessons Questions are difficult –you’ll be accused of a political agenda whatever you ask –they need not only to be relevant, but also things people may be prepared to “have a go” at A portion of residents will deny having received questionnaire - even though you know you put it through their door Teams are vital - “managing group” and distributors/collectors; inputters It takes time You won’t “win” everything, nor get action on everything that ought to be covered 30% can be a good turnout (cf local elections!)

6. H iston & I mpington C ommunity A ppraisal P roject What have we achieved? Before appraisal results published - but after we started the process: –youth club –village newspaper –litter picking, bulb planting And now: –community centre group –action re recreation facilities –inter-working (at least communication) between groups –youth shelter plans –skateboarding club –environment group - litter picks, bulb planting and much more

7. H iston & I mpington C ommunity A ppraisal P roject Achieved? –public open space opportunity –transport actions –material on development to take to SCDC –some engagement with youth issues, and young people (joint Councils Youth Committee) –Police vision (publicly stated) “Neighbourhood Watch Village”

8. H iston & I mpington C ommunity A ppraisal P roject Not so good? Questions –some very good, very relevant - but very limited number of people able to see, and commit to, actions –lots of free text input - difficult to analyse Percentage return varies dramatically with distributor/collector Difficulty (to date) engaging with other Councils over results Community commitment to action