Summary of Responses
This summary describes the responses from Knightsford residents in the parishes of West Stafford, West Knighton, Tincleton and Woodsford. Thank you to all who took part. The full results of the survey can be found here:
Knightsford survey result June 2022
Questions 1&2. Number of respondents, their ages and the size of households.
202 people responded to the survey out of a total population of about 900. This is about 22%. The highest response, about 30%, came from West Stafford.
The highest response age group rate, 35%, came from the 50-64 age group. The lowest response rate, 5%, came from the under 34 age group. 26% were 65-74 and 15% over 75.
Most respondents, 60%, said their household has 2 residents and 66%, lived without children under 18. Possibly a reflection on the age group of most respondents. 15% said they were single residents and 15% that they had 3 residents. 11 respondents, 6%, had 4+ residents. (Caveat: There may be more than one respondent per household)
Question 4. Employment
115 respondents work. Just over half, 54%, work outside of Knightsford. 34% work from home. 10%, mostly West Knighton residents, work somewhere else in the Knightsford.
Nationally before covid the % of people working from home was about 12%. The ONS’s latest data suggest about 38% of people now work from home or ‘Hybrid work’ so we appear to be in line with current trends.
Given our rural location with very limited public transport the 64% not working from home underlines the continued need for personal means of transport, or a need for more efficient public transport.
Question 5&6. How should it look in 15 years and what should be considered in planning decisions?
The highest responses were that our parishes should be friendly, rural, safe, tranquil & attractive.
A rural feel, easy access to natural woodland and open green spaces, a garden, and mature trees hedgerows and shrubs were the four highest planning decision categories with almost 100% of respondents ranking them as very important or important.
The least important considerations were on street, grass verge and pavement parking, and street furniture. The lack of importance on parking may be a reflection that most people do not have a problem parking ‘on street’, or with other people parking ‘on street’, because most people have off street parking. It’s just not a problem.
Numerous other suggestions for planning considerations were put forward – mostly from West Stafford. The range was broad so please take a look at the full survey results, link above if you want to see them all. The most popular broad categories were;
Traffic – traffic calming, safe for vulnerable users, dealing with speeding.
Design – light pollution, blend with existing buildings.
Tranquil – keep things quiet.
Question 7. Who is looking to buy or rent?
About 40% of respondents said someone in their house, friends or others were looking to buy an affordable house in our parishes.
About 30% said they knew people needing a home at an affordable rent.
About 20% said they knew someone needing a home for larger families.
About 15% said they knew someone needing single person accommodation.
About 23% said they knew someone needing a home for the less mobile.
Overall this probably reflects the normal range of housing needs. The percentage of people knowing people who need affordable housing probably reflects the lack of affordable housing across the region.
Question 8. Less or more holiday cottages and caravan parks?
85% of respondents wanted to discourage more holiday cottages and second homes. 93% wanted to discourage more caravan parks.
The 2011 census indicates about 10% of homes in Dorset are second/holiday homes. Knightsford is below average with about 7%.
Question 9&10. What sort of business / activity do you want in the parishes?
Agricultural/horticultural/food production was clearly the most popular activity to encourage by 65% of respondents. 35-40% were in favour of encouraging service trades, equestrian trades, and pubs and café’s. The lowest activities were office based and retail with less than 20% wanting to encourage them.
Although retail scored poorly in the set category questions, when asked for further comments the most popular requirements were for a small village/farm shop particularly by West Stafford, and post office, chemist, barber by Woodsford. This came through strongly again in the general comments section at the end of the survey. There were numerous other ideas like craft/creative workshops, pet and fitness businesses. Too many ideas to summarise here so please take a look at the survey results.
Only a very small number, about 2%, of respondents were intending setting up a business that needed premises in the parishes.
Question 11&12 . Facilities – how important is what we have and what do we need?
Interpreting question 11 across the 4 parishes is harder for this question.
West Stafford and Knighton both have pubs, but there was no clear indication from Tincleton and Woodsford that they needed their own.
Tincleton respondents identified a need for a children’s playground and green space like a rec ground or sports facilities.
Both West Stafford and Tincleton have village halls. Tincleton residents have expressed concern about lack of parking facilities and ideally would like a new hall. The need for a West Knighton hall was expressed in general comments in the survey.
Churches may provide a baseline for all the categories as every village has one. Tincleton’s accessibility is rated very slightly lower than the other villages possibly because it is further away from the larger communities in the parish.
The answer to the question 12 on what we don’t have but need solicited many responses. They are too numerous to summarise here but fall into the following main categories – again, take a look at the survey results if you want to know more.
Village/farm shop – this was most popular for West Stafford respondents. Covers post office/chemist. Or better shops in local larger communities.
Car parking for facilities like Broadmayne school or the Tincleton village hall and church.
Bus service to Dorchester.
Village hall – this was most popular for West Knighton respondents.
Question 13. Horses, bikes and legs.
There was across the board encouragement for more or improved bridleways, offroad bike routes and footpaths. Support ranged from 80-90% for all categories.
The three rights of way categories overlap. It probably reflects opinions that riding, cycling or walking on our small village lanes is hazardous when most have unrestricted speed limits and those that do have speed limits are often ignored.
Question 14. Green energy
Solar farms were the most popular with 90% of respondents. 55% would support wind power. Biomass power generation was the least popular with 35% support.
Question 16. What type of development, if any, would you like to encourage?
This question was one of the most varied across the 4 parishes.
Housing was the most popular choice being strongest in West Knighton and Tincleton at around 70% of respondents but weakest in West Stafford and Woodsford at around 20%. Leisure facilities were very popular for West Knighton respondents.
The suggestions part of this question solicited many responses mostly supported the broad categories mentioned above eg. small shops, small scale development in keeping development, better public rights of way, a bus service. But there are many other ideas. Please take a look.
Question 18. The neighbourhood plan
92% of respondents favoured having a plan. This ranged from 96% in West Stafford to 80% in Tincleton.
The “add any comments” part of this question raised wide ranging opinions and suggestions on what our community needs are. They all illustrate that people in our community live here for a reason. They care about it passionately. Although some do not want any development, others are open to sympathetic small scale development particularly if it helps local people.