Hickling Neighbourhood Plan Questionnaire 

You will have recently received a questionnaire about development in Hickling. Your response to this questionnaire is vitally important, particularly in light of proposed and actual site development plans in the village.

As interested residents, we would like to share our thoughts about the Neighbourhood Plan with regard to housing development.

As an identified unsustainable village, we do not support large-scale development as outlined in this questionnaire. This survey provides no option to embrace gradual, small-scale development that is evolutionary and genuinely meets the needs of local residents who are looking to move within the parish.

The residents’ responses to the 2017 questionnaire survey are what have been used to identify the need for 10 residential dwellings in Hickling and Hickling Pastures. We can now see the reality of this – two proposed sites with overdevelopment, encroachment onto green field and significant loss of amenity to the neighbouring area. We do not ‘need’ to have these houses.

Please look carefully at the proposals and ask if this is what those residents wanting starter homes or more elderly residents wishing to downsize would want to purchase.

The results of the 2017 survey also asked those 26 households with someone wanting to move within the parish in the next 10 years, what they would be able to afford to purchase or rent a property. The average prices were £196,858 and £332 respectively – unfortunately well below the level of the £350,000+ we expect the Long Lane properties to be valued at. This price estimate is based on the semi-detached property on Main Street, Wisteria Lodge, currently for sale at £350,000.

If the 10 dwellings are not meeting the needs of the residents who want to move within the parish, do we want them built?

Finally, we are concerned about the conflict of interest in who drew up and voted for this questionnaire and the leading nature of the questions and information presented. This survey could be a valuable opportunity for discussion about development in the village, and we would welcome open, informed discussion which considers other options than the two which are presented in a misleading light.

We will be putting our answer to Questions 7 as “Do not meet the housing need.”

But in reality, we are not against development and would have liked the option of selecting our desire to see gradual and considered development in response to genuine village need.

If you are interested in engaging in reasoned discussion, which is not personal and can productively represent the views of residents in this important issue, join the forum:

https://discord.gg/5f6w7G (you will need to register with an email)

From, The Residents of Long Lane

Please note, the deadline for this questionnaire (7 August) is after the deadline for The Orchard planning (28 July), so please make sure you get responses into The Orchard in the coming week. Thank you for your support.