Stoke St Gregory Parish Council Somerset,

Introduction

The Parish, like many other rural Parishes, is undergoing social, environmental and economic changes; changes which will influence the future character of the community. The Parish needs to be in a position to understand these changes and what people need in order to maintain and develop a socially and economically cohesive community.

It was considered that a Parish Plan would enable the Parish Council and local voluntary groups to understand these needs and to be better able to influence those whose decisions influence developments in the Parish: for example, Taunton Deane Borough Council, Somerset County Council and Taunton Deane Primary Care Trust.

The Countryside Agency through the Vital Villages program aims to help small rural communities to identify what they need to do to revitalise the community and to provide support to enable the Parish to implement some of the improvements needed locally.

Stoke St Gregory Appraisal Group was set up by the Parish Council under the Countryside Agency’s “Vital Villages” initiative. The Countryside Agency Grant was supplemented by financial contributions from Stoke Parish Council and the Community Council for Somerset .

The Stoke St Gregory Appraisal Group was made up of volunteers, and the group reported back to the Parish Council. Our first job was to decide on the issues that are important to Stoke people.

A draft questionnaire was displayed at the 'Village Showcase' and comments invited. We then built a questionnaire which was delivered to every household in the village.

We had a fantastic 87% response to the household questionnaire and 155 people put their names forward with a view to helping develop future activities in the village. Once the replies were analysed, the important job was to turn those answers into an Action Plan that will help keep Stoke a Vital Village for all who live here, now and in the future.

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