Herefordshire Council has confirmed that residents who just miss the deadline for completed questionnaires on the important Shaping Our Place consultation – will still have their views taken into account.
The deadline for the end of the eight-week consultation on the future of Herefordshire is Friday 12 March. Thousands of residents have already responded in what is likely to be Herefordshire Council’s most successful consultation ever – but many more will have left it to the last minute to submit their views. Any completed questionnaires that arrive after the weekend or during next week will still be valid.
The council has presented a series of options for creating a new land of opportunity, with more and better paid jobs, more affordable homes, more vibrant communities, more enterprises, better transport links and improved public services. Around 40 public meetings, events or workshops have taken place in the city, the market towns, villages, parishes, schools and businesses across the county.
“The issue will affect everyone who lives and works in the county, in what will become the planning blueprint for Herefordshire over the next 15 years”, said Councillor John Jarvis, cabinet member for environment and strategic housing.
“It is important that everyone takes the opportunity to influence the outcome, whether you are interested in where new communities might go, the route of the Hereford or Leominster relief roads, the site of new employment land or the type of jobs, homes, transport links or public services we create for the future”.
“We don’t want to deny anyone their contribution if it arrives just after the deadline, so any questionnaires arriving after the weekend, or until the end of next week, will still count”.
There are three ways that people can still get involved:
- Pick up a consultation paper and questionnaire from your local council info centre - there is one in Hereford and in every market town, or;
- Log onto the online consultation and complete a questionnaire online, or;
- Fill in a simplified version of the questionnaire in the current issue of Herefordshire Matters, which is distributed to every household in the county, and pop it in the post with the freepost address.
People’s views will be analysed and proposed policies developed and presented back to the council’s cabinet later in 2010 and publicised, before being submitted to the Secretary of State, who will arrange for a public examination and inspector’s report with final adoption anticipated in 2011.
In parallel, the council is also running a consultation on the Local Transport Plan, which is also due to finish on 12 March. The plan will be adopted by April 2011 and will drive the county’s transport strategy for the next 15 years. The review of the transport strategy is intended to align transport policy with the wider needs of the county and will help coordinate support for growth. The Local Transport Plan consultation enables local people to let the council know what their priorities for transport are for the county, whether it is greater public transport investment, more cycle routes, better highway maintenance or further road safety improvements.