Creech St Michael

Neighbourhood Plan

Secondary School Consultation

School Years 7- 11

Conducted by

The Community Council for Somerset

March 2017

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Community Council for Somerset, Victoria House, Victoria Street, Taunton TA1 3JZ

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Secondary School Consultation

The Creech St Michael Neighbourhood Plan group commissioned CCS to carry out a consultation with the young people at the Heathfield Community School for students aged 11-16 and school years 7-11. The group had already carried out an extensive consultation through a household questionnaire which was delivered to all homes in the parishes. This additional piece of research was carried out to ensure all parts of this community were involved in the process and that their views, ideas and ambitions for their community can be included in the plan.

How did we do it?

To capture a snapshot of the views of the young people it was decided that it would be most effective to work through the school as this is inclusive, nearly all young people will be included as opposed to out of school activities which would attract different groups of young people with different issues/concerns/views.

To gain a view from all the ages of young people attending the school we worked with Natasha Rand who is the Student Voice co-ordinator. She arranged for two students ( one male and one female) from each year to be invited to attend the workshop at 9am on March 13th. Unfortunately we were unable to include students from year 8 as they had a special event on that morning but we had two students from the other years.

The group were invited to sit around a table together and the purpose of the consultation and the concept of a Neighbourhood Plan was explained. We then placed a large sheet of paper on the table with one of the questions below on it. The students were asked to write their own answer on a “post it” and stick it on the sheet without talking to the other participants. They then were given a sticky coloured dot to place on the comment that they most agreed with, other than their own and to discuss the comments given and if appropriate to add additional comments after the discussion. These comments have all been recorded and have been used to create the information below.

The questions we used were:

What do you like about living in Creech St Michael parish?

What don’t you like about living in Creech St Michael parish?

What would you like to see here in the future?

What do you like to do in your free time?

How do you feel about walking or cycling to school? Do you feel safe?

Yes/No

Comments/mark danger spots on map of a parish

Anything else?

The Results

The results of the consultation were reviewed and analysed. From this we can see what the main outcomes are from the questions.

What do you like about living in Creech St Michael parish?

The key facility that the students enjoy using is the recreation park both for football in the open space and using the play equipment and multi use games area.

They also like the quiet rural nature of the parish, being able to go for walks with their dogs and access the countryside, canal and river. In addition being close to Taunton is also important.

What don’t you like about living in Creech St Michael parish?

There were two main negative aspects according to these students, firstly the volume and speed of traffic and secondly the village shop being too expensive.

What would you like to see here in the future?

The students are keen to have better indoor sports facilities. They would also like to have more activities for young people in their age group, they said there are plenty of things for young children and older people but not for teenagers, they would like more clubs and things to get involved in. There was also a request for more and better shops and a takeaway.

What do you like to do in your free time?

The common answers to this question were using games consoles and other electronic devices and football. Other responses were:

Horse riding
Dance/gymnastics
Reading
Dog walking
Play darts
Watch TV

How do you feel about walking or cycling to school? Do you feel safe?

Everyone said they did generally feel safe walking or cycling around the parish how ever they also said that they didn’t feel safe cycling along Hyde Lane to school and that there should be more footpaths.

Comments/mark danger spots on map of a parish

Map dots:

6 along Hyde Lane beyond M5 bridge

2 Creech Heathfield Road, just beyond North End

Anything else? We asked the group if they had anything else they wanted to say, anything they had thought of during the session or hadn’t been covered in the questions.

The students gave the following comments:

Traffic was a concern and they felt there is a need for two zebra crossings, one near the primary school on Hyde Lane and another outside The Bell Inn on St. Michaels Road. They also suggested speed cameras to help with the same issue as they said drivers don’t conform to the speed limit. In addition they thought that the pavement on Creech Heathfield Road should be widened to make it safer. They also saw parking as a concern and specifically sighted Ryelands Way on a Sunday as an issue with people parking near road junctions which they thought could cause accidents.

They also thought that footpaths are often harder to use because of overgrown brambles etc.

Conclusions

From this results you are see that there are some key issues and concerns which need to be considered as part of the Neighbourhood Plan, these are:

1) The best things about living here is the park and being in a rural environment and being able to go on walks and access the canal and river.

2) The most negative things about living here are traffic congestion and speed and the students are keen for different measures to be introduced to reduce traffic speed and provide safe ways to cross the roads and wider footpaths.

3) The young people are keen to take part in more sport and other activities and so want the facilities to do this. They particularly wanted indoor sports facilities and clubs and activities for their age group

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