Developing an Action Plan for the future of our Village
You may recall that during the autumn of 2004, the Parish Council asked you to complete a questionnaire to assist them, and other authorities, in discovering how the residents of Oakley wanted to see their village develop in the future.
A Steering Group independent of, but supported by Oakley Parish Council, was established to progress this initiative on behalf of the whole community. The Steering Group also asked for and received offers of assistance from many residents, and from these several sub-committees were established, again to produce Action Plans covering several pertinent village topics for incorporation into a final report. The results are now complete and the analysis of the questionnaire and the Action Plans that were generated, have been published in a document that was delivered to every house in the village during September.
The monitoring of the individual Action Plans will be publicised in the Parish Council’s Newsletter and on this web site
Action Plan Objectives
This plan will enable the whole Community to have a voice on future developments in connection with the way it can:
- Sustain itself
- Support its population of young, middle aged and elderly
- Maintain and improve its economic health
- Adapt to changing times
- Grow and prosper in ways to benefit the whole community
- Protect and enhance the local environment
Oakley Parish Action Plan 2005
The final document, which was delivered to every household in the village, runs to some 26 pages. To read this on-line would be a very time consuming exercise, so for those who would like to see and perhaps retain the document, it is available in Adobe Acrobat format as a ‘pdf’ file which can be downloaded by pressing this link: Parish Action Plan
To save this to your hard drive, right click the link above and then click ‘Save target as…’
Post Plan Results
Village Settlement Plan
Thank you to everyone who read the proposed Settlement Plan for the village. There has been no adverse comment. Residents have now endorsed the recommendation of the Village Plan Steering Group.
This plan was presented to the Parish Council and adopted by them. The plan has now been through the full local consultation process. It will now be considered as part of the process of agreeing the settlement plan for Oakley village within the Local Development Framework of the Borough Council. This Oakley Settlement Plan will be the basis of the Parish Council discussions with the Borough Council planners when the planners consult with them in the New Year.
Linch Furlong
All the hedge laying has been completed. Two new signs have been erected with a plan of the site and some things you might see there. There will be new trees planted as the deer thought that some of the trees were delicious and had a feast. The brambles are being flayed by Robert Saunders as soon as they reappear and are getting gradually weaker. This autumn there was a variety of wild flowers. Do visit, you never know, you might see an otter, some deer or woodpeckers.
Sustainable Village
By the time you read this, the meeting will have taken place and actions will have been agreed to make this a more sustainable village. If fuel bills can be reduced and ways can be found to make us more aware of ways to recycle and cut down travelling miles for things we buy then that must be a good thing. A further report will be in the next newsletter.
Traffic
Steve Nicholas has been working on traffic counts at the crossroads of the High Street and Station Road. They are being analysed at the present time. An early result has been that the majority of the traffic uses the route via Pavenham Road and Highfield Road. This suggests that the majority of this traffic is through traffic and not village traffic.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to the County Council’s exhibition on proposed traffic measures in Oakley and Bromham. Most people, I heard, appeared to want them to get the link road from the A6 Clapham Bypass to the finished Western Bypass in place as soon as possible. They felt that this was the only way to stop traffic rat-running through the village. The County Council will consider all the evidence and report back sometime in the spring.
Pat Olney