Neighbourhood Plan -- youth responses to questionnaire

Demography roughly in line with distribution of adults: 70% live south of the railway, 30% to the north. 53% of respondents were boys, 47% girls. Since the age-range is 8 to 18, some interpretation is called for.

Village facilities used overwhelmingly favour the Blackbourne: 89% of respondents use the playing fields, 62% the play area, 59% the indoor facilities there, 52% the MUGA, and 45% the recently installed outdoor gym equipment. The play areas at Crown Mill and Clay Field are used by 44% and 38% respectively. Lukeswood is used by 45% of respondents and the Memorial Library by 41%.

Facilities which would be used if available are, firstly, a zip-wire (identified by 78% of respondents), followed by a tennis court (56%), a skateboard/BMX park (52%), an internet café/computer facility (51%), and an all-weather sports pitch (Astroturf) (49%). 67% of respondents travel outside Elmswell to use sports/leisure facilities.

Responses to the question 'How do you get to school' have clearly to be interpreted in the light of the age-range alluded to earlier. Leaving aside the jokers who travel by private jet or unicycle, 46% go by school bus, 25% walk, 13% are taken by car, 9% cycle and 6% ride motorcycles or scooters. Travel outside Elmswell for leisure purposes is overwhelmingly as car passengers (76%).

Problems experienced getting round Elmswell broadly echo those identified through the adult questionnaire, but with 39% of youth respondents understandably focused on cycle paths, or the absence of them. The Co-op car park tops the list of other concerns, with 51%, followed by narrow pavements (46%), difficulty in crossing the road (38%), parking on pavements (37%), speeding traffic (28%) and HGVs (27%).

The level crossing of course looms large: traffic queuing there is a concern to 33% of the young respondents, while the timing of the gates is mentioned by 25%, and the lack of a footbridge by 27%.

With regard to public transport, 10% of the respondents thought that there were not enough buses or not at convenient times, while 8% thought the same about the trains. A lack of information about bus and train times was identified as a problem by 21%.

39% of the youth respondents want to live in Elmswell when they grow up, but 61% -- one is tempted to say 'the other 61%' -- agree with the statement that more houses will mean less open space / green space for play and recreation. Understandably, therefore, 60% think 'We will need more/better facilities for play, leisure and sport to cope with the extra people.'