BELMONT RURAL PARISH PLAN

Division
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Planning Communications Crime Division App a.Survey App b. Comment
App c. Reaction1 App d. Reaction2 App e. Fun Fair App f.Updates    

Is it a problem?

Obviously, the A465 trunk road divides the Belmont estate physically. Does it divide

COMMENTS,
SOLUTIONS

Provide a pub (two responses); a restaurant or take-away

"I didn't realise we had a divide"

"Don't know the solution But (resolving it) is a good idea"

More councillors representing the "south" (two responses)

Traffic prevents people - especially childred - using the other side of the A465

 

the estate socially?

•When Belmont Rural PC was founded in 2000, only one councillor - out of the full complement of nine - lived on the southern side. After ill-health forced his resignation it has not been possible to recruit another councillor from that side since.

• In July 2002, the PC held a Funding Fair to test residents’ opinion prior to drawing up the survey form. For various compelling reasons the event was held on the northern side of the estate. Less than a dozen of the 280 people who attended came from the southern side.

The survey form invited residents to comment infomally on the possibility of a divide and, where they believe it exists, to suggest solutions. A selection of anecdotal responses appears in the adjacent panel.

Crossing the A465 is not a negligible matter as one of the respondents points out. Certainly the heavy traffic (with only one official pedestrian crossing) hinders free association between children living on either side of the road. The situation is also a problem for the elderly.

One encouraging revelation did emerge from the survey and is summarised in the

LANDFILL NOT SEEN AS JUST 'NORTHERN" ASSET

Five survey questions concerned the Landfill, arguably a "northern" asset. Yet only seven out of the 93 respondents on the south ignores these questions. Also, out of a maximum possible 465 responses to these questions, souther families ticked a commendable 264.

Suggesting that many on the south side of the A465 regard the Landfill as an asset to them

adjacent panel.

Answers?

The survey provided some evidence of a divide but the data is not “hard” enough at the moment to form the basis of a policy, even if there were any immediately recognisable answers. One course of action is obvious:

l The PC should actively work towards co-opting councillors from the southern side of the A465.