Foreword
The process of Parish Appraisal has certainly taken a long time. Looking back in my diary I see that it was on 18th July 1996 that the Hartland Parish Council held a meeting to discuss the project with Mike Knight from the Community Council of Devon.
On 19th September in that year the Parish Council held a public meeting to attempt to gauge whether there would be any interest in appraisal. It would be true to say that the Council was astonished at the response, the hall was packed,
Since that date the Appraisal Committee has worked hard at devising the questionnaire which a lot of you completed. It was not easy, we were limited in the number of questions we were allowed by the Community Council who analysed the questionnaire, there was a deal of argument in the Committee and many of the questions we thought necessary had to be left out.
The questionnaire was delivered by members of the committee to all households in the Pariah on 2nd June 1997 collected on the 17th June and then given to Mike Knight for analysis, The analysis and the completed questionnaires were returned to me in September 1997 and I then began to draw up the draft report which was presented to the Steering Committee on 6th November. The final report was given to the Parish Council at their meeting on the 27th. November.
There are many people who gave of their time to make sure the appraisal was a success. In particular I would like to thank Mike Knight for guiding us through the process and Ann Piffman who co-ordinated our efforts and made sure that we knew what we were doing. Thanks to the Steering Committee for attending many meetings and doing the legwork in distributing and collecting the questionnaires.
Many of the aspirations of the community may not be able to be satisfied. However, I am sure that within the report we will be able to identify changes which will benefit all the people of Hartland and at the sane time ensure that the unique qualities that makes Hartland the place we all love remain forever.
Vivian Gale November 1997