BOUNDARY CHANGE
Coronavirus Covid-19
The boundary change has been agreed by both parish councils and the next step is to get a signed petition from the statutory required number of residents of both parishes. Due to the High Workload of Durham County Council Electoral Services, this process has been put on hold for the foreseeable future.
Further to our preliminary survey (details below) which indicated that the vast majority of Woodland residents wished to be in one parish, Woodland Parish Council has carried out a further survey of the 52 domestic properties within Woodland village (i.e. properties with a Woodland postal address) which currently fall within Lynesack & Softley parish boundary.
Four out of the 52 properties are currently unoccupied; therefore the results of the survey relate to 48 properties.
Of the 48 properties we have received responses from 45 of these, being unable to contact occupiers of 3 houses.
From those surveyed 96% said they would like Woodland Parish Council to represent all of Woodland village.
We believe that that the 2 surveys demonstrate a desire by all the residents of Woodland to be represented by Woodland parish council.
Further to a meeting of Lynesack & Softley Parish Council, on 14th November 2019, both councils are now in agreement to proceed to the next stage.
From our previous contacts with Durham County Council we think that the next step will be to petition DCC to undertake a Governance Review.
We may need to seek some guidance from DCC as to what form this petition would take. It would then be up to the county council to decide. (may take some time).
BOUNDARY CHANGE: Reasons Why & Initial Survey Results
Woodland village is currently one village split between two parish councils.
Roughly speaking everything to the West of the school is in Woodland Parish Council (about 68% of the village) and the rest is in Lynesack & Softley.
We have therefore conducted a preliminary survey to see if the residents of Woodland, on both sides of ‘the border’ would be in favour of this move.
The parish council has conducted a leaflet distribution to every household within Woodland & Lynesack Parish areas with a Woodland postal address.
The results are as follows:
- Those who would like Woodland Parish Council to represent all of Woodland – 97.1%
- Those who are happy with the current arrangement (2 parish councils) – 2.9%
- Response Rate (% leaflets returned): 20%
(ASA Distribution, a professional leaflet distribution company, considers that 2% is an average response rate from a leaflet distribution survey}
The Parish Council considers this an overwhelming endorsement of our proposal and so we have written to our neighbours, Lynesack and Softley Parish Council, and asked them to consider this and, if in agreement, to open a dialogue between both councils to agree a way forward within County Council guidelines.