Your Housing Needs Survey needs you!
You may remember that the key importance of Walberswick having a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) is that it is literally the only thing the village can do that has legal standing in the planning application process with East Suffolk District Council (ESDC). Once we have a ratified NDP, ESDC is compelled to take the NDP into account when considering planning applications for Walberswick, unlike comments made by individuals, or even the Parish Council for that matter. So if you care about the type and amount of development that goes on in Walberswick in the years to come, it is vital that you help support the development of the NDP.
A Housing Needs Survey is a vital piece of this NDP work and will help us understand the need for additional housing (if any) in Walberswick; this might be affordable housing for young people who have grown up in the village, housing with disabled access, sheltered housing, etc. etc.
The entire village (literally every house) will receive a questionnaire on the weekend of 11th/12th June asking about the housing needs of that household and the survey will be open for responses until 25th June - we want to hear from anyone that lives/has a property here and that include owners, renters, second home owners & holiday let owners, whether you are full-time/part-time or non-residents
If you will not be in the village between 11th June and 25th June to pick up the paper version of your survey off the doormat, please send an email before 11th June to: walberswickNDP@gmail.com and we will send you a code so that you can fill it out online.
(Note: Everyone receiving a paper copy of the survey also has the option to complete the survey online using a unique code printed on every survey form)
The assessment and questionnaire is being organised on our behalf by Community Action Suffolk (CAS) - the survey does include asking questions about household finances that some may find too detailed, however no questions are mandatory and it is a tried and tested means of obtaining the data vital to accurately assess the future housing needs of an area and the benefit of this data being collected and analysed by external specialists is that all data will be logged outside of the village; your individual data will not be reported back to the steering group.
How can help us with the Housing Needs Assessment?
1) Fill in the questionnaire when you receive it – either online (ideally) or the paper version which is freeposted back to CAS
2) Tell your friends and neighbours about the HNS so they know about it and are encouraged to fill it out
Thank you
Neighbourhood Development Plan Steering Group