We received over 500 responses to our initial survey asking how you felt about Virginia Water, its’ amenities the environment. We had hoped to present these updates earlier, but COVID-19 has impacted the speed at which we've been able to review these and investigate as a Neighbourhood Plan Team.
We’ve listened to what you have told us, teasing out the themes linking your responses and comments to help us define the overarching vision for how our Community should grow and develop in the next ten years and beyond.
This feedback has been instrumental in understanding how the village needs to evolve to meet our collective needs and to define the vision for the Neighbourhood Plan to follow as we work through the various stages of the Neighbourhood Plan process.
We’d like to share our findings from the survey and introduce our Vision for the Future – we hope you’ll agree it embodies the openness and environment we all value and puts in place a framework for the Village and Community to thrive for the next twenty years.
As we translate the Vision into plans and actions we will be identifying how to balance these against the Local Development Framework and Runnymede Borough Council’s 2020 Local Plan, so there will be more opportunities for us to feed back progress and for you to ‘have your say’ again as this evolves.
We identified four major areas of focus from the Survey which we will spend more time investigating over the coming months
We’ve listened to what you have told us, teasing out the themes linking your responses and comments to help us define the overarching vision for how our Community should grow and develop in the next ten years and beyond.
This feedback has been instrumental in understanding how the village needs to evolve to meet our collective needs and to define the vision for the Neighbourhood Plan to follow as we work through the various stages of the Neighbourhood Plan process.
We’d like to share our findings from the survey and introduce our Vision for the Future – we hope you’ll agree it embodies the openness and environment we all value and puts in place a framework for the Village and Community to thrive for the next twenty years.
As we translate the Vision into plans and actions we will be identifying how to balance these against the Local Development Framework and Runnymede Borough Council’s 2020 Local Plan, so there will be more opportunities for us to feed back progress and for you to ‘have your say’ again as this evolves.
We identified four major areas of focus from the Survey which we will spend more time investigating over the coming months
Local Transport - All felt that there were issues needing addressing within local transport
Local Amenities - Some amenities are approaching capacity
The Local Environment - Retaining a sense of openness and managing traffic are important
Openness to Development - Increased pressure on existing amenities were a common theme
In light of the survey responses and our review of verbatim comments and scores we have distilled the results, along with requirements within the Local Development Framework, to create our vision for the future of the village.
Our neighbourhood plan must provide a cohesive bond between the people who live in Virginia Water, those who come for work and our surrounding, generally rural, context. Our environmental goal should be to provide and support the range and quality of spaces that allow everyone to find a niche where they are comfortable: where their needs and enjoyment of open space and landscape, shops and restaurants, playgrounds and amenities are met. It should discourage the village being used as a ‘pass through’ and encourage and support community life with community facilities within easy pedestrian access.
Our public realm should be designed to fulfil the functional needs of our community in a unique, dynamic and memorable way that contributes to the safety, diversity, vitality, and social engagement of any future development, reinforcing a ‘sense of place’ within the village and enhancing the special character of its unique buildings and world class sporting venue.
Ease of access to, from and across the village for all its inhabitants and visitors is a fundamental driver of our new plan, which must be environmentally sustainable and as close as possible to carbon neutral. The routes, spaces and public movement network should be placed to maximise open views and clear, easily observable, available and secure movement pathways.
Our village should remain compact and intimate and any new development should support this primary goal. New built form should contribute to our public realm by offering facilities and amenities with a sense of visual continuity, activity and village life, even if those activities may sometimes be limited by the functionality and security of those buildings. This should be in its design or through the CIL that contributes to a specific neighbourhood public objective or amenity.
Our collective goal is to make Virginia Water a better place for living safely by improved connectivity and accessibility, living well through improvements to open space, landscaping and infrastructure and support a family-oriented housing offer by improvements to our recreation, learning and achievement facilities. Those who live in Virginia Water enjoy and cherish the quality and character of our landscape, public open spaces and, through our guardianship, wish to bestow this legacy to future generations.
Our neighbourhood plan must provide a cohesive bond between the people who live in Virginia Water, those who come for work and our surrounding, generally rural, context. Our environmental goal should be to provide and support the range and quality of spaces that allow everyone to find a niche where they are comfortable: where their needs and enjoyment of open space and landscape, shops and restaurants, playgrounds and amenities are met. It should discourage the village being used as a ‘pass through’ and encourage and support community life with community facilities within easy pedestrian access.
Our public realm should be designed to fulfil the functional needs of our community in a unique, dynamic and memorable way that contributes to the safety, diversity, vitality, and social engagement of any future development, reinforcing a ‘sense of place’ within the village and enhancing the special character of its unique buildings and world class sporting venue.
Ease of access to, from and across the village for all its inhabitants and visitors is a fundamental driver of our new plan, which must be environmentally sustainable and as close as possible to carbon neutral. The routes, spaces and public movement network should be placed to maximise open views and clear, easily observable, available and secure movement pathways.
Our village should remain compact and intimate and any new development should support this primary goal. New built form should contribute to our public realm by offering facilities and amenities with a sense of visual continuity, activity and village life, even if those activities may sometimes be limited by the functionality and security of those buildings. This should be in its design or through the CIL that contributes to a specific neighbourhood public objective or amenity.
Our collective goal is to make Virginia Water a better place for living safely by improved connectivity and accessibility, living well through improvements to open space, landscaping and infrastructure and support a family-oriented housing offer by improvements to our recreation, learning and achievement facilities. Those who live in Virginia Water enjoy and cherish the quality and character of our landscape, public open spaces and, through our guardianship, wish to bestow this legacy to future generations.