ORWELL VILLAGE CONSULTATION

During 2022 Orwell Parish Council will be undertaking a series of consultations with residents seeking your views on what you value about living in the village and what your hopes/priorities are for the future. The results of these consultations will help inform the Parish Council’s priorities and the development of the Neighbourhood Plan. Themes will include Accessibility, Amenities, Environment, Facilities, Planning, Recreation/Sport and Transport.

There is however a time critical issue on which we would like your views. The 2-acre field next to West Croft, Hurdleditch Road has been given to the village for recreational use and a planning application must be submitted soon, or we are at risk of the land reverting to the original landowner.

The initial suggestion was to build a full-size FA standard football pitch for the Orwell Football Club with an understanding that the FA could provide a substantial sum towards the cost of this. Unfortunately, we now know that the FA are unable to do so and other grants we had hoped to secure we find we are not eligible for. In addition, it became clear that the Club would not be able to use a new pitch unless new changing facilities are built there. The drainage, pitch, perimeter fencing, car park and the required dedicated changing facilities have been priced at a minimum of £500,000. We also face annual running costs of £5,000 with drainage maintenance of £9,000-£18,000 every 5-7 years. The Parish Council does not have money available to cover this and any loan taken out by the Council to fund such a development would have to be paid for by all residents through a significant increase in Council Tax. Therefore, we have taken the decision that the football pitch should remain on the existing recreation ground for the time being.

Orwell Parish Council has been given £55,000 by Croudace, the developers of West Croft, to turn the field into a sports/recreational space. We’ve looked at costs of various options and believe we have found some immediately affordable options, as well as some options that may be suitable for the hopefully not too distant future with smaller grants being more achievable. We’d really like to get your feedback on the types of sport/recreation facilities you would like to see and use in Orwell. This will allow the Parish Council to take into consideration your preferences as we start to plan for the development of the site on Hurdleditch Road.

We have avoided listing more expensive options as the only way these would be affordable is to substantially increase council tax, and we feel this would not be appropriate.

We therefore seek your opinion on what recreation facilities are important to you and you would like Orwell Parish Council to consider. There is a link to a survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/OrwellNewRec

The closing date for the survey is Sunday 27th March 2022.

PLEASE NOTE: The survey will record the first response per device e.g. laptop or mobile. If there are multiple people in your household using one device, we strongly recommend submitting one response per household.

PAPER COPIES: A limited number of paper copies of the survey will be available from the Village Stores and Hairwaves. If you do not have access to submit your responses online, please complete a paper copy and drop it into Councillor Sam Grimley at 52 High Street, Orwell.