The OurHI Neighbourhood Plan survey closed at noon on Monday with over 2000 responses. Thank you!

There’s a good distribution of respondents with all age groups represented including an impressive number of younger people. People who visit the community have also provided significant input.

This is an excellent result and gives us lots of data to analyse. There are also lots of verbatim comments which also be analysed and reported.

We expect the report of the survey to be presented at the Parish Council meeting in November (Mon 21 Nov 16) after which it will be made public. We will also look for opportunities to present it to other groups within the community.

At the Feast Market on Saturday morning there will be two parish council stands.

One stand will be a ‘typical’ parish council stand featuring information about informal open space and environmental matters within the community. It’s worth a visit.

The other stand will be ‘branded’ our HI and will be about the Neighbourhood Plan where we will be talking about the plan, asking people to engage with the it in general and, in particular, to participate in focus groups.

There’s more information about the Neighbourhood Plan at www.hiplan.net.

Alternatively is you want to sign up to join a focus group you can do so now at www.enventure.co.uk/ourhi.

The Parish Council’s leading the development of a Neighbourhood Plan. This is a strategic piece of work to deliver a document that guides the way the village will be developed in the future.

Currently there’s a core team of 6 people made up from parish councillors and village residents who’re starting to put this document together. Last night they took their initial proposal of 7 neighbourhood plan objectives to a wider steering committee to see if they were on the right track. The objectives were mainly supported, but it became clear there needs to be more work done to explicitly support new themes. The village cares deeply about keeping its sense of identity (not become a dormant village), creating connections between people with similar interests, reducing its carbon footprint and the environment. Other themes that we have are around:

· Safety and security
· Housing supply
· Social infrastructure
· Access and mobility
· Commercial success

We additionally have cross-cutting themes of technology, heritage and sustainability that must be taken into consideration when talking about any of the above.

There is a lot to think about, and the Neighbourhood Plan team will be meeting on a regular basis over the coming months. We will be presenting to the steering committee and also trying to get neighbourhood feedback through various channels. It’s the neighbourhood plan team’s intention to get as much feedback from the community as possible. If you feel you’d like to contribute, please check back here from time to time to see how we’re doing and how you can contribute.