General

How should the Parish develop.

There were 167 in favour of a balanced community, 131 want St. Giles to stay as it is whilst 59 want a working community. There was little support for a retirement community or commuter community

Do you preform voluntary work?

Of the 292 respondents 77 people (26%) do voluntary work.

Employment

Are you employed, if so how?

Of 305 resapondents, 112 (37%) are employed, 49 (16%) self employed and 9 (3%) unemployed. There sre 39 (10%) in full time education and 72 (24%) retireed. 21 (7%) are unwaged, 11 (4%) permanently sick or disabled and 3 did not fall into any of the categories.

Where do you work?

One third (79) work at home and 11 work in the Parish. 60 (25%) work within 5 miles of the Parish, 66 (28%) within 15 miles whilst 20 (8%) travel over 15 miles to their place of employment.

Are you paid employment in any capacity?

Out of 276 respondents 151 (55%) are in paid employment. But of these 151 only 140 indicated the type of work in which they were employed. 38 (27%) are employed in Retail Trade, 17 (12%) are in managerial positions, 48 (34%) are professional people and 16 (11%) are employed in categories not included in the list.

If not employed, are you actively seeking paid work?

At the time of the appraisal, 16 people were seeking paid employment this represents 15% of the respondents. yet only 9 were unemployed according to question 37. the type of work sought was spread fairly evenly over the categories listed with 5 seeking unskilled employment and 5 in the retail trade. There are also 4 professional people seeking employment.
A disturbing fact was that 5 people have been looking for employemnt for over 2 years.
9 people were looking for full time occupations whilst a similar number required part time work. The main barrier to employment was the lack of opportunity (8 persons ) whilst 5 and 4 persons gave lack of public transport and lack of qualifications respectively, as their reason.

If you are an employer, self employed or intend to become self employed, do or will you run a business?

52 people oen a business and employ 84 people. 23 of these businesses are in agriculture and 10 are professional organisations. The remainder are spread equally over other list categories. 34 of theses businessed are located in the Parish and 16 outside the Parish. Of the 34 businesses within the parish, local persons comprise up to 9% of the workforce at 17 businesses whilst at 14 busunesses local personnel comprise from 75% to 100% of the workforce.
It is anticipated that at 4 companies thw workforce will increase over the next 12 months. None of the firms have had any particular difficulty in filling vacancies over the past 2 years though at 25 there have been no vacancies.
7 each of the businesses had in-house training facilities/training for qualifications 5 used other establishments fro training and whilst 5 had either a trainin budget or a written training policy 30 had none of these categories.

Do you intend to become self employed within the next 12 months.

5 of 131 respondents intend to become self employed in the next 12 months, though 11 out of 35 respondents stated that "lack of Startup Finance" was the main restriction on their not doing so. 8 others quoted "Other issues" as being restrictions. (43)

Suggested Action Plan

Housing

1. The need for housing for local people and social housing needs to be addressed.

Education & Training

2. There is a need for a nursery/Pre-school roup.
3. Adult education, ensure that courses are available locally ie. Torrington or St Giles.

Health & Social Services

4. Exert pressure on the authorities to provide Dental facilities in Torrington.

Retail Services & Other Facilities

5. Set up feasibility study on (a) a Sub-Post Office and (b) a Community Shop.

Sport, Social & Entertainment

6. Provide a centre for the various age groups for sport and social purposes.
7. Improve the Parish Hall to provide for better facilities for indoor sports and social events.
8. Provide a Childrens Play area (a) in the village ?, (b) in Kingscott ?, in Stevenstone ? or wherever.
9. Provide a Playing field for Cricket, Football, Rugby etc in the village. Is there a need for a Bowling Green?

Transport & Roads

10. There is a need for traffic calming schemes in several areas of the Parish.
11. Conduct a feasibility study into an improved Bus service both in numbers and timings.
12. Parking - is it a problem or does it act as a "traffic calming" feature.

Employment

13. Encourage "cotage type" industry to the area which could provide local employment.

Parish Hall

14. Consider possible merger of Parish Hall/Social Club.
15. Mount concerted effort to improve facilities at Parish Hall.