About the VAP Committee...

Following a grant received from the Countryside Agency, Wappenham Village Action Plan (VAP) steering group was formed (as a sub-committee of the Parish Council) to undertake a series of consultation activities with villagers, on Wappenham’s future needs regarding, local amenities, leisure, housing, etc. for the next 5 years and produce a Village Action Plan.

The actions to be put forward were based on a variety of consultative activities. In addition the Village Action Plan is also producing a Village Design Statement (read below for more details).

The VAP committee consisted of Colin Bullock, Eileen Robbins, Nick Levinson, the late David Foden, Phil King, Brian Watts, and D. Walsh. Since then, it has now been taken over by the Parish Council.

Village Design Statement

It's over 4 years now that the VAP committee consulted villagers about the possibility of Wappenham having it's own Village Design Statement to help influence decisions on design and development. A majority of residents voted that they would welcome such a document. In order to better understand what a Village Design Statement does and what this will mean for Wappenham we have copied the following information from the Countryside Agency website. The village design statement was completed over 2 years ago. We are still waiting for it to be ratified by South Northants County Council, hopefully it will go through in 2007. A link to the draft document is available by clicking on the following link:

Parish Plan and Village Design Statement
(.pdf document - size: 1.47MB)

"Many people feel that they have no say over what development takes place in their community; but Village Design Statements (VDSs) offer a constructive solution to this dilemma. Local communities have a unique appreciation and understanding of their own place, and a VDS is based on this knowledge. It describes the qualities that residents value in their village and its surroundings. Around 200 English communities have completed Design Statements to date."

"A Village Design Statement sets out clear and simple guidance for the design of all development in a village, based on its character. It is an advisory document produced by the village community, not by the planning authority. It will not stop change from happening, but it can help effect how any new building fits into the village. VDSs are intended to influence the operation of the statutory planning system, so that new development is in harmony with its setting and makes a positive contribution to the immediate environment."

Ref:http://www.countryside.gov.uk/LivingLandscapes/ countryside_character/landscape/village/index.asp

Questionnaire

It has taken a lot of time and effort to compile the results of the questionnaire. For those of you who were not yet residents when the questionnaire was circulated, here is a bit of background information.

The questionnaire was constructed through comments collected during Wappenham’s Future Needs Day event, which took place at Wappenham Village Hall on the 30 November 2002. In 2003, a questionnaire was devised and distributed over the summer. We had such a good return that compiling the answers took much longer than anticipated. Effectively out of the 122 questionnaires that we distributed to 120 households, 108 were duly completed. In effect, 90% of households took part in the survey; this is much higher than the average participation rate for this type inquiry!

 

The fact that VAP committee members delivered and collected the questionnaires in person had much to do with the high turnout. A big thank you to Lyn Colby who compiled the questionnaire. Analysis of the preliminary results has been presented to the Parish Council; you can now view these on-line by clicking on the link below. Please note that there are charts on this page and therefore it may take some time to download depending on your connection (150 seconds at 28.8 kbps).

 

Questionnaire Results