Two weeks ago a group of volunteers delivered a leaflet to every house in Newton Poppleford, offering the opportunity for each household to express an opinion on whether they wanted the proposed development by Clinton Devon Estates at the top of King Alfred Way to go ahead.

Last week the forms were collected and the results have now been collated. I would like to thank all the people who helped with this exercise in democracy and for all the residents of Newton Poppleford who took the time to respond.

I should point out in advance that the boroughs of Southerton and Harpford were not included in this survey, only through a lack of volunteers and for no other sinister reason!

There are approximately 600 houses in Newton Poppleford. To date there have been 365 responses, including eight forms which were sent directly to EDDC’s planning department as letters of support for the proposal.

In answer to the question “Do you support this application?” in total there were 21 votes in support, 321 against and 23 undecided.

In percentage terms this is about as emphatic a result as it gets: 94 per cent of residences who expressed an opinion are against this application.

We may extrapolate this result further if we bear in mind that there are on average 2.4 people living in each residence in the village. That’s a lot of local opposition.

Residents voicing concerns over this application at local parish council meetings have been told that they are the “vocal minority” and “unrepresentative of the village as a whole”. This is clearly not the case.

It appears that it is some members of the parish council who are actually “the vocal minority” and have been used to doing exactly what they want in this village for far too long.

Time to listen to what the people are saying for a change. After all, that’s what you’re there for.

The results of the survey are available for inspection on request – please call me on 568766 if you would like to do so.

Also, if any resident of the village didn’t get a leaflet for some reason then please give me a call and I will arrange for one to be delivered. Every voice counts equally.

Chris Burhop

(via email)