The Parish Plan: They should ... and we will ...
With the last of the completed questionnaires now safely in, we can confirm a return close to 60% and that’s a real credit to everyone who took part. The strength, enthusiasm and commitment of the whole community were evident throughout and we were hugely heartened by that.
The consequences of such a success are now being played out in a lengthy and time-consuming operation involving collating all the information you supplied – nearly 40 copies at 24 pages a time, many of them not only bristling with ticks but full of ‘free’ comment in the boxes at the end of each section. In recording and assessing all these responses we’re still enjoying the momentum which the operation generated; while we do it, we hope you’ll be patient in waiting for the considered results without losing sight of the energy which you apparently sensed while the questionnaires were being pored over and thoughtfully completed. It will take time; we’ll do it as quickly as we can and the full results will be made available to everybody, certainly by the next edition of the newsletter in December.
It’s obviously too early to make any sort of judgement about how you responded. Quite a large team of volunteers have each kindly agreed to process 30 copies and our immediate impressions can only be partial. Nevertheless, I’ll chance an observation of my own. We’ve always been aware that there are two sorts of issues which we’ve asked you to address. There are those in which we are part-players whose contribution can never be more than contributing to and gathering consensus, presenting a snapshot of village opinion – the sorts of things which we’d all like, other things being equal. But they’re not equal and there are other partners involved in the process of decision-making which may be responsible for the Parish of Cradley and Storridge not always having its own way. But we can, and should, express our collective view and promote it vigorously when such things are being debated and in the right places. These are the ‘they should ...’ areas when ‘they’ are perceived to be all-powerful; government, both local and national, is of course, the ultimate arbiter but there is a strong element of ‘we’ in the ‘they’ and the Parish Plan is attempting to identify our view and articulate it. The second issue is much more obviously about those things which we have complete control over. Many of the sections in the questionnaire which we asked you to respond to addressed those concerns which will happen, will get better, will change if we, as a community, take charge of them. Activities and organisations don’t function without leaders and buildings don’t stay open without funding. When we asked you, with some trepidation, to break the anonymity rule if you wanted to volunteer help of any kind and in any capacity, we knew we were taking a risk. We needn’t have worried. I’ve been struck by the number of respondents who have, by name, expressed their willingness to contribute to the life of the villages in a practical way. That’s good for the future of this community. In due course, we’ll be in touch with all those volunteers .
That’s the next stage; inviting any of you who have expressed interest - or who will still do so - to take part in the next round of discussions initiated by the responses to the questionnaire. And then on to the Plan; it’s an exciting time; come and join us. The website is HYPERLINK "http://www.cradleyandstorridgepp.org.uk" www.cradleyandstorridgepp.org.uk and you can telephone Sue Ronan (01886 884646)
Peter Diamond