Investment in young people, environment, leisure and cycling are priorities for Kenilworth residents, survey results reveal

By James Smith

1st Nov 2021 | Local News

Investment in facilities for young people, the environment, leisure and cycling are the priority for Kenilworth residents, according to the results of a town council survey.

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) survey asked residents to share their thoughts on what Kenilworth Town Council should spend up to £5 million of funding on, over the next ten years.

CIL is money raised by the council from local developers and can be used to support a wide range of infrastructure projects, including: transport, schools, hospitals, and other health and social care facilities.

With over 1,000 responses to the council's survey, the results have today been released.

Each resident was asked to rank 11 different priorities in a number of ways and consistently their top four were:

Providing or improving facilities for young people
Working smarter within our natural environment and making Kenilworth more environmentally sustainable
Improving general leisure facilities in Kenilworth
Making it easier and safer to cycle in Kenilworth

Commenting on the sheer number of responses, Green party Councillor James Kennedy expressed his thanks to residents.

"More than 1,000 residents completed the survey which is amazing when you consider how many distractions there are with the current health crisis," he said.

"And more impressive still was the number of considered and constructive ideas we received that will help us to make investment decisions based on what residents believe is important to their town."

Residents were also asked to submit other ideas for investment that could aid everyday life. These were grouped and then ranked, with the top four being:

Traffic calming and traffic flow management (reducing speed and congestion)
Improving civic amenities (more benches, more bins, improving signage)
Improving Leisure and Arts facilities (reinforcing the point above)
Improving and better maintaining verges, pavements, hedges and trees (plus planting more)

Communication

A second, optional, part to the survey asked for residents' views on how the town council should communicate with the local community.

This was completed by 700 people with 95 per cent stating they want the town council to communicate more directly with residents.

Member of the town council's communications group Cllr Alison Firth said that the volume of responses shows the importance of this issue to residents.

She said: "The fact that so many respondents made a point of completing the optional questions means we need to pay attention.

"People told us they want to hear about progress being made on local projects, about planning and development issues and, perhaps more importantly, they've told us they want to know more about how decisions are made locally and what Kenilworth Town Council does alongside our district and county council partners.

"We'll be taking this on board as we pull our communications plan together."

Next steps

Whilst the council has said the number of responses was positive, it has also said that it wants to ensure that young people's opinions are represented before any final decisions are made on CIL investment.

Cllr Kennedy has confirmed that the council will now be discussing how best to engage with residents aged 16 to 25.

He added: "Now we have an understanding of how residents want CIL funds to be invested, our first step will be to broaden our current, dedicated web pages for the programme to include a full summary of the survey results plus a set of simple steps outlining how residents can submit proposals for CIL funding."

Some CIL investments have already been agreed this year, with the Talisman Theatre being granted up to £100,000 for its redevelopment works.