Responses from Questionnaire 1…..

The feedback from Questionnaire 1. told us that being in the countryside is what you all love about living in Aldington and Bonnington; 90% of respondents felt that our Neighbourhood Plan should consider how we protect our countryside, with 75% thinking that it should consider what is built in the village and 71% thinking that our Plan should address community services.

This first questionnaire has achieved its objective which was to help us to decide the scope of our Neighbourhood Plan.  What cannot be fitted into a Neighbourhood Plan will be considered by Aldington & Bonnington Parish Council and shape future actions, activities and events.

Overall it was a good response; we sent 2 questionnaires to each of the 550 properties, as everyone’s view counts, and we received 212 responses, covering all postcodes within the joint parish.  We would, of course, be very happy to see a response from every house and hope, as awareness grows of what a Neighbourhood Plan can achieve, the response rate will grow.

The Steering Team are now busy deciphering your responses.  It’s intriguing to see the similarities and differences of view from the various age groups and segments of the community: those that live in the middle of the village, for example, versus those that reside in the more outlying areas.  Whilst Aldington, in particular, has grown drastically over the last 10-15 years, Bonnington has hardly changed.  Many people in Aldington feel strongly that there should be no more building at all.  The Neighbourhood Plan cannot guarantee that but, if we discuss development ourselves there is a chance that, when it comes, it will more appropriate development and acceptable to our community.

The survey results clearly showed us that you support the inclusion of design codes for future development in Aldington & Bonnington:

They also told us that the majority of respondents to this questionnaire are over 60 years old ( 55%), have lived here for more than 10 years (65%) and most feel that the village has declined over the last 5 years.

Whilst Aldington and Bonnington have a very established community, it may be that younger and newer residents have very different views and the Steering Team are aware that engaging with this group is our next challenge.

In the mean time, your responses have given us a mandate to gather evidence about the many rural characteristics that make living Aldington and Bonnington such a pleasure.  The first aspect that we are focussing on is the landscape and views and we invite you to record your favourite views, along with location, in a photograph.  We are launching a competition for the best scenic photograph. Look out for more information on this.

You can see the full summary of response to Questionnaire 1. in the gallery below.