THE first phase in a project to give residents more say on planning in their area in an East Cornwall parish is coming to an end and project organisers are now looking forward to phase two.

The Calstock Parish Neighbourhood Plan has come to the end of its first phase, which involved sending out a questionnaire to residents to gain views on what they were most concerned about in the parish.

The questionnaire from phase one, implemented by the neighbourhood plan committee, which comprises community members and representatives of the parish council, was to promote the idea of a neighbourhood plan and gauge peoples' initial thoughts on it.

Chairman of the neighbourhood plan committee David Harding said: 'This is a plan developed by the local people of the parish to help preserve the future of our rural character, to look at the way the land is used for improvements to local amenities and ensure there is enough new housing to meet the needs of the community. Local people play a major role in making the plan and it is their right granted by the Localism Act.

'The plan consists of three phases — phase one has been completed showing the scale and scope of the plan based on the responses from the community and in phase two the planning board, consisting of local people, are in the process of compiling a detailed questionnaire from phase one highlighting their main concerns — conserving village character, affordable housing, green spaces, transport links, wild habitats, employment, leisure/sport and village assets.

'A programme of awareness of the questionnaire and its contents prior to it being posted/emailed to everyone in the parish in the late autumn will be advertised to achieve a good response from the community. Collecting the data from the returned questionnaire will be the start of phase three, leading to a yes/no referendum on the new 20 year neighbourhood plan.'

Parish councillor Jane Moore, who is on the neighbourhood plan committee, said: 'Responses from the initial consultations have been used to determine which issues are most important to local people. The next round of consultations will focus on these issues and will form the basis of Calstock's neighbourhood plan. This is our chance to have a say on how our parish will develop and what it will look like for future generations.'