Community Conversations – Phase 2 of our community engagement plan

Thank you to everyone who completed one of our surveys on Commonplace over the summer.  Over 300 visitors and residents of Hope Valley responded to the survey about travel and transport in the area, and we now have some excellent base data to inform the next stage of our Community Conversations engagement plan.

Key findings from the survey are:
 
–  Community is what people love most about living in their village, and the impact of traffic is overwhelmingly the biggest downside
– the distribution of amenities across different villages means the current approach to planning bus routes in the area is less than ideal for residents.
– a significant proportion of people want to cycle but don’t because of perceived dangers 
– significant challenges are faced by those with mobility issues – we have many examples of people simply unable to participate in their community due to poor pavements, poor public transport, and poor road safety.
– measures that make it easier for people to use public transport or active travel should be combined with measures to deter driving if we want to better connect villages and to make villages more enjoyable places to live by reducing traffic
 
You can read the full report here.

Our next step is to work with residents on a village-by-village basis to identify a range of solutions that would result in people choosing to use active travel and public transport for journeys to the most common destinations. Crucially, we need to consider appropriate measures to make sustainable forms of transport easier or more appealing, as well as measures that help to deter people from driving for some journeys. Communities are invited to identify solutions and work on implementing them, supported by us.

We are setting up face-to-face community conversations in Bamford, Grindleford, Bradwell and Castleton as these villages have had high response rates and volunteers keen to get involved.  Online community conversations will continue through the Hope Valley and there will be opportunity for other villages to help organise face-to-face conversations in the future if we get sufficient responses and volunteers.
 
Even if we had a fantastic bus service and excellent walking, wheeling and cycling routes, car journeys will still remain a necessity. We are working closely with a consortium of travel organisations to explore shared mobility – various options such as lift sharing, car sharing and community clubs.  Watch this space for more information later this month!

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