Romseynet - Look at Romsey Area Two

Look at Romsey

Town Design Statement for Romsey

Halterworth

Prepared by a team of volunteers in the area under the auspices of the
Romsey and District Society.

The project started early in 2004 and finished in July 2006. It proceeded somewhat erratically, as there were several periods when members of the working party were not available. It covered an area that contained 808 households.
In all 10 meetings were held with a total of 12 people participating apart from walks and exhibition.

2003-4
Initial step: January 2004
A letter was sent to members of the Romsey and District Society who live in the area asking for their help in delivering leaflets advertising the inaugural meeting. Six people volunteered. In all 20 people helped with leaflet distribution during the course of the project.

First meeting: February 2004:
The first meeting was held in Montfort Hall and was attended by 29 people and four people wrote in with comments.

Planning meeting:
One planning meeting was held in Romsey Town Hall, but after that all planning meetings were held in a private house in Benedict Close.

Guided walks
Two guided walks were held in April 2004 and were attended by 20 people. They were advertised by a leaflet put through every door in the area.

Preparation of questionnaire: May-June 2004:
The questions and layout of the questionnaire were prepared by a total of 8 people.

Questionnaire: June 2004:
Copies of the questionnaire were delivered to every household in the area with a request to return them by 30th July. Two local shops acted as collection points. Some questionnaires were returned direct to the Look at Romsey convenor.

Processing of answers: Summer 2004:
Every answer to each question was typed into an Access database. 104 replies were received, which is 12.9% of all households.

Preparation for exhibition:
Three meetings were held at which the replies were analysed and materials were prepared for public exhibition. The whole area was leafleted once again.

Exhibition: 12 September 2004:
An exhibition was held in Cemetery Chapel in Botley Road, in conjunction with the cemetery being open for Heritage Open Day. It was seen by 114 people.

2004-6
It was after the exhibition was held, that there was a lengthy break in the project, although two or three meetings were held. Work re-started in earnest in 2006 when the Design Statement was written and the text sent to TVBC for comment. Once the words were agreed pictures were selected. This involved taking some additional photographs as those that were available were judged to be inferior.

Public consultation June 2006:
The draft statements were printed and a volunteer collated and stapled them. A leaflet was distributed to each household telling residents that copies were available at four locations within the area and several in the town centre. In addition copies of the statement were sent to all Town Councillors, Test Valley Councillors for the four Romsey wards, County Councillors for the two Romsey divisions, the MP and one or two other bodies, such as the Police.

Reactions to the design statement:
200 copies of the design statement were taken from the outlet points. In addition, people read them at such places as the CAB offices and the library.

Comments:
Eight people sent in comments. The replies were generally complimentary although they made several points where they considered we needed to amend the Statement. We were heavily criticised for not stressing the need to preserve the open space east of Halterworth Lane, and had to explain that this was not a design matter. Also residents of Halterworth Lane commented that they do not want house numbers. Each comment was acknowledged. A few corrected factual errors.

Final meeting:
This was held on Wednesday 2nd August 2006. The comments were discussed and some amendments were made to the text. Subsequently each person who had sent in comments received a letter saying how we had handled their observations, with the exception of the person who attended the meeting.

Non-design issues:
August 2006: A letter has been sent to councillors and others listing the non-design matters that were raised as a result of this project.