Stonehouse Village Action Plan: A Step in the Right Direction 

Calling all Stonehouse residents!  Moves are underway to create a Village Action Plan which sets out what local people think should be happening in the village over the next five years. The exercise, led by the Community Council will be carried out over the next few months and residents, voluntary groups, young people, and business are being encouraged to share their ideas about what projects and initiatives will make a difference to the local area.

Stonehouse Community Council will be co-ordinating activities and events to get feedback from local residents and have commissioned independent consultants Community Enterprise to support this work.

George Smith, Vice Chair the Community Council, said “We are very pleased to be working on a new Village Action Plan which will capture important views about the future of our village.  We hope that this will help us understand where we all need to focus our efforts in creating that future, but also have some influence over planning decisions that may be proposed.” 

Chris Strachan, a Development Officer from Community Enterprise says that: “This is an important opportunity for people living in Stonehouse to influence development of the village. We want to make sure the plan represents the concerns and aspirations of people who live locally so the more people we hear from, the better. The issues, ideas and aspirations generated through the process will be put together into a plan identifying projects and initiatives, as well as how people can work together to make them happen.”

Residents are being encouraged to spread the word and get involved.  There will be several different ways that people can share their views and these will be advertised locally.

A community survey has recently been launched, which can be completed online here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Stonehouse-Survey  Paper copies are also available from reception of Lifestyles and can be returned there. The survey will be open for the whole of April. 

An open-to-all drop in event will be taking place at Lifestyles on Saturday 20th April from 10am – 12pm. This is an informal opportunity for people to come and hear more about the consultation, to ask any questions and share any views on what the issues are and what projects could address them. 

For those preferring to speak one to one with Community Enterprise for a more in-depth discussion, Chris Strachan can be reached at chris@communityenterprise.co.uk