THE questionnaire which will form the basis of the Addingham Design Statement was unveiled at last week's meeting of the village parish council.

Containing more than 80 questions, it will be delivered to every house in the village before volunteers collect the completed forms around ten days later.

For the past ten months a group of volunteers has been preparing the questionnaire which is intended to cover every aspect of village life and reflect what residents want to see in the future.

The Village Design Statement

committee will then use a specifically designed computer programme to analyse the results before the Village Design Statement is produced.

Although Village Design Statements cannot prevent unwanted housing development, the document has to be taken into account by planners and developers.

The committee has produced a statement for residents saying: "To make all the work that has been done to date worthwhile it is important that the majority of the questionnaires are returned."

From trials it has been estimated that the questionnaire will take each household around half-an-hour to complete.

Parish Councillor Danny Palmer, who is a member of the committee, said: "The number we get back will reflect the opinion of the village on everything that is in the questionnaire. This is probably the most democratic way of finding out what the people in the village want."

The questionnaire covers questions of housing, transport, leisure, crime, sport, road safety, council services and other facilities - even down to people's opinion on whether there is an adequate number of post boxes in the village.

In what has been dubbed Addingham's high-tech Domesday Book villages will be quizzed on their opinion about the wildlife in the area.

Last year Bradford Council leader Ian Greenwood advised parish councillors to produce a design statement for the village but the idea only became a reality when young villagers Kirsty Allott, 19 and Christopher Campbell, 23, successfully applied for a £4,000 grant from a National Lottery funded body called C2M.

They were helped in their bid by Harry Rowlinson, a member of the Village Design Statement committee.

He said that the document would not only help influence planning decisions but it would also provide a historic document reflecting village life at the turn of the century.

At last week's meeting Parish Council chairman Alan Jerome heaped praise on the work done by the committee.

"We want to record our thanks to the Village Design Statement Committee. Everybody was totally committed and determined to get the best questionnaire and the best answers for the village. It has been a lot of hard work and they have all done a fantastic job," said Coun Jerome.

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