In March 1998, Sue Murphy, representing the Community Council of Devon, chaired village meetings in Harbertonford and Harberton to explain the concept of running a Community Appraisal. From those meetings came the process of putting together an Appraisal Steering Group, identifying local issues, designing and writing the appraisal document, delivering and collecting it from every household in the Parish and having the results statistically measured. Those results, and their implications, are contained in this Report.

The steering group is very grateful to everyone for taking part and completing the questionnaire with so much care. As a result there is now a unique record of the ‘voice’ of the Parish from 844 of us aged 11 and over. (81% return)

This Report allows us to judge how we all feel on many issues - you will see that some opinions are strongly voiced. However, the Report is not the end of the process.

The next stage is to hold Public Meetings at which we will have the opportunity to discuss the findings and, more importantly, to agree how the important issues are to be dealt with, either by ourselves or with outside help. After the meetings the work of the appraisal steering group will be finished but the intention is that Action groups to deal with some issues will have been formed or that an existing body will take on the action to deal with particular issues. Some issues where no solution seems likely in the short term may simply have to be noted as important but for future review.

We will invite representatives of all authorities concerned to the meetings e.g. Devon and Cornwall Police, Devon Highways, South Hams District Council, the Community Council of Devon and the Parish Council. If you have any questions about these meetings please ring Paul Handover on 862343.

General points

Historically, Harberton and Harbertonford have been linked since the 16th century when Harberton Ford was a ‘daughter church’ of Harberton. The daughter has now outgrown the mother!

The present Parish of Harberton covers two villages and four census enumeration districts. Because the merit of separate councils for the villages was raised at the beginning, we based this part of the questionnaire on the two enumeration districts around each village. To say ‘Harbertonford and area’ and ‘Harberton and area’ every time would be clumsy so please read Harbertonford and Harberton as having this meaning.

We have included a summary of the main points raised followed by the supporting detail. The detailed part of the report is formatted in two columns. On the right we have analysis of your answers to the questions and, on the left, direct quotations taken from your replies.

You will see that the percentages do not always add up to 100! This occurs in multiple response questions where you could pick several options.

Finally can we give everyone who has played any part in this Appraisal a great big “Thank you.” We could not have done it without all the help from the CCD, the very practical assistance from SHDC and the Parish Council and the volunteers who distributed and collected the questionnaires. Most of all we thank all of you who filled in the forms and gave us the information needed to produce this report. It is our earnest hope that it will prove a useful tool in determining the future of our communities.

Summary

This Appraisal Report uses the same section headings as the questionnaire. In these detailed sections of the report which follow we bring out the main features of your replies. However, in an attempt to make the report more digestible, in this section we have summarised the main issues arising from the Appraisal and what we propose be done about them. The full detail of the questionnaire analysis is available to anyone who wishes to see it.

The main issues are in several categories. Some are well known but the solutions, if they exist at all, are very difficult or not yet available. We have noted such problems because they must certainly not be ignored just because they are difficult to deal with. Other issues are within our own communities’ power to act on. One of the encouraging features of our Appraisal is the number of people willing to help with certain issues and this is something we propose be used in some cases.

A few of the problems raised are already in hand with the Parish Council or other authorities. The way forward here is probably to use the new data from the appraisal to reinforce the action already being taken or to show the depth of feeling or the extent and effects of the problem.

Then there are issues which are going to need a group to be set up to tackle them. This could be a sub committee of the Parish Council but it may well be a new group. This will be for issues which are longer term and where there is careful work or more research to do.

Finally, several voices were raised pointing out that there is a great deal that is good about our parish and that we should be careful to preserve the things that make this an attractive place to live. Any changes must be openly debated so that due weight is given to the experience of those who have made the villages and the countryside what they are.