Questionnaires were delivered to every household in Handforth towards the end of January, as a crucial part of the Neighbourhood Plan process asking their views on what aspects of living in Handforth are important, what they like and what they dislike about Handforth. Residents were also asked for to suggest ways in which Handforth could be improved.
Approximately 3,300 questionnaires were delivered to homes within the parish and 351 responses were received which Handforth Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group have now completed their analysis of. The majority were returned as hard copies but a significant number were submitted online. The bar charts presented above show analysis of responses to the questions.
The three topics most important to respondents were transport/traffic, natural environment and health services. The things they like most about Handforth were community spirit, convenience of local shops, good transport links, parks and green spaces, access to the countryside and health centres.
Dislikes that ranked highly included traffic/congestion, poor quality of local shops, overdevelopment of green spaces and poor car parking facilities. Whilst the most popular suggestions for improving Handforth were improvement of the Paddock, preserving the remaining greenbelt and improving the car parking facilities.
Roger Small, Chair of the Neighbourhood Plan Committee said "In view of local traffic problems and Handforth's impending loss of a great deal of its surrounding greenbelt, it was of little surprise that these issues were, in question 1, rated as among the most important. Handforth residents also seem very keen on their provision of health services.
"A good community spirit topped the "What do you like about Handforth?" list. It would be good to think that such community spirit will survive, and indeed increase, as the urban area of Handforth increases (by approx. 100%) during the plan period. It is perhaps no surprise that traffic congestion topped the "Don't like list".
"When asked to suggest ways of improving Handforth, provision of better shops in the village centre featured strongly as did preservation of the remaining greenbelt land and improving car parking facilities. While recognising that some of these issues may prove difficult to resolve, the neighbourhood plan steering group hope to produce a plan that will significantly benefit the village.
"To that end the group would welcome any assistance that local residents may wish to provide."
Neighbourhood Plans allow communities to say what they want their priorities to be over the next 15 years and once completed they have the power of the law. Planning Officers will refer to Neighbourhood Plans when considering planning applications for new developments in and around the village, which means they can have a real and positive impact on the village's future.
Residents are encouraged to follow the development of the neighbourhood plan by referring to the display in Handforth library and to the neighbourhood plan website.
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