vision for queensferry
DESCRIPTION
In 2005 16 volunteers got together to train as community facilitators and carry out a participatory appraisal within their community, South Queensferry in Edinburgh. Vikki Hilton, a specialist in engaging people who lived in the village trained and mentored the whole process during which 1400 people contributed over 6000 ideas and opinions. THis has been a foundadtion for many groups to apply for funding and helped drive change in teh community.TRANSCRIPT
Vision for Queensferry
What you said…
What happened?
Who knows a community better than the people who live there? When the Scottish Executive announced that there would be some changes to local government, Queensferry people were not slow to recognise what this meant for them. Over the summer 2005, in the biggest participation exercise ever carried out in Queensferry, Vision for Queensferry went out and asked local people for their views. What did they like about Queensferry? What did they dislike? And what changes would they like to see? Vision for Queensferry, a group of 17 people, all local, came together to unlock all this local knowledge. We did this so that the people of Queensferry could make their voices heard – all 1400 of you who participated, from all ages, all areas, and all walks of life, and what a voice you had!
Here is how it was done, and what you said…
Community Feedback
Autumn 2006
Where did people take part?
Local shops and supermarkets
Local churches
Playgroups
The library
Local schools
Pubs
Local events
Rosebery Hall Community Centre
Local businesses
Sheltered Housing
Out and about on the streets
On the doorsteps
Inside people’s houses
Out and about at local supermarkets
Over 100 people came to our event launch day at Queensferry Parish Church. All ages took part.
Total Tracking by Age
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
5-1
1
12-1
5
16-1
7
18-2
4
25-3
4
35-4
4
45-5
4
55-6
4
65-7
4
75-8
4
85+
Male
Female
Where did people come from?
We asked people to put a dot on the map to show where they lived. The diagram above shows the wide spread of people who participated -- all areas were well covered.
Feeding back the information
People wanted to know quickly what we had discovered, so we set up displays at the Ferry Fair, at the It’s a Knockout competition at Queensferry High School, in both supermarkets, the library, and at Agilent Technologies.
‘I’ve lived here for 35 years and this is the first time anyone has asked me for my opinion.’
How do people rate South Queensferry?
We asked people to tell us, on a scale of 1 to 10, how they felt about living in South Queensferry. As you can see below, the answer was ‘pretty highly’ for all age groups except our teenagers. Straight away, this gave us very useful information about our community.
Individual Rating by Age
0.00
2.00
4.00
6.00
8.00
10.00
5-1
1
12-1
5
16-1
7
18-2
4
25-3
4
35-4
4
45-5
4
55-6
4
65-7
4
75-8
4
85+
Rating
What age groups took part?
People of all ages – especially young people -- were keen to share their views.
Acknowledgements:
Thank you to everyone who took part. Thank you to the Vision team who made this project happen. Thanks to the City of Edinburgh Council for the grant to make it possible. To Forward Scotland for additional printing costs. To the Edinburgh Health Co-operative for intial training funding. To Agilent Technologies for training and publicity materials. To Queensferry Parish Church, all schools, and to our trainer, Vikki Hilton.
‘Everyone knows everyone – you feel at home here.’
Your top ten likes
Here is what you like about South Queensferry.
1 Community spirit
2 Food, restaurants, hotels and pubs
3 It’s an attractive place
4 Shops and shopping
5 Schools and nurseries
6 Unique features such as the road and rail bridges
7 The green spaces
8 The geographical location
9 Good transport links
10 Recreation and leisure
‘Queensferry is a fantastic place to live. Who would live anywhere else.’
Top ten dislikes
1 Not enough, or not good enough, recreation and leisure facilities
2 Traffic congestion (especially A8000 and High Street)
3 Not enough ‘decent’ or useful shops
4 Bus service
5 Litter
6 Young people hanging around with little to do
7 Lack of proper maintenance of green spaces and public gardens
8 Parking
9 Housing – too much development + Hill Court (bottom of the Loan)
10 Dog mess
What could be changed
Here is what you said would make South Queensferry better.
1 Better recreation facilities
2 A cinema
3 Better variety of shops
4 Better road access
5 Improved bus service (especially at rush hour) and fairer fares
6 Bowling alley
7 Swimming pool
8 More fast food outlets or places to go for young people
9 Better maintenance of green spaces
10 More litter bins, better cleaning
What could be changed (Young people's views)
Young people are an important part of community life. They were keen to air their views, so we decided to highlight these here. (Some of course appear in the list above too.) ‘Better buses from Queensferry to Kirkliston.’ ‘More good job opportunities.’
‘Somewhere safe to hang out.’
Where now?
We hope that those who take the important decisions about our community can now look more closely at our full report and the original data which will be available to everyone (in paper form and on CD) to read at the library or on the Community Council Website: http://www.queensferrycommunitycouncil.org/
For more information about Participatory Appraisal, contact [email protected]