Love It / Hate It Survey
Results
There is no doubt most people love living in Medstead.
When surveyed, residents rated Medstead's quiet rural environment, with its open spaces and network of footpaths for walking, the friendly village atmosphere and a community centred around the village green, school and shops, top of the list of things they love.
Also high on the list was the lack of street lights and consequent lack of light pollution, so enhancing the rural ambience. As Medstead is situated high on a plateau on the Hampshire Downs this also enables, on clear evenings, spectacular views of the night sky.
Unsurprisingly then, perhaps, better maintenance of footpaths, stiles, verges, cycleways and bridleways, the reinstatement of the pond on the Village Green and more attention to ditches and drains came high on the list of desired improvements.
However, the question we have to ask ourselves is whether this lifestyle can be maintained, given the pressures placed on communities, like Medstead, to change and develop.
Indeed, development was a significant theme in the results, particularly infilling, the lack of affordable housing and the need for restrictions on new building.
While many would like to see Medstead stay the same as it has been for years, we face continuing pressure for more homes and further development.
Are we better to try to control where development takes place rather than try to prevent it?
In the survey two topics kept coming to the fore when residents looked at the things they disliked about living in the village: the state of the roads and the amount and type of traffic coming through the parish.
On roads, their state of repair and the lack of pavements were highlighted both as major dislikes and areas where significant improvements were necessary.
On traffic, respondents were primarily concerned about the volume, type and speed of traffic, the village being used as a rat run between the A31 and Basingstoke and the lack of respect shown by drivers to pedestrians.
Consequently, top of the list of desired improvements came lower speed limits, traffic calming measures and more or enforced speed restrictions.
In general, the survey also showed residents value the wide range of activities available in the village, for those who wish to be involved, whilst the shops, church and Castle Of Comfort all had their supporters.
Young people in Medstead, however were particularly concerned about the lack of facilities for them.
Travel, specifically the lack of an adequate bus service, was the second major area of concern highlighted by young people.
Suprisingly, green issues and concern for the wider environment did not feature strongly in the survey results. Perhaps ideas on how we should respond to climate change, reduce Medstead's carbon footprint and increase our efforts to reuse and recycle will come out of our responses to the Parish Plan Questionnaire?
You can download a summary of the Love It / Hate It Survey results here.
The views gathered in the survey gave us a firm foundation to create the Parish Plan questionnaire, which was distributed to all residents during October, 2007.
Thank you to all those who participated.
Survey
Our Love It / Hate It Survey asked the following questions: