A survey to discover what Sid Valley businesses, organisations, clubs and special interest groups think would improve the town went live today.

A second questionnaire, released by the Sid Valley Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group, will be sent out via email to more than 400 participants and will also be available online. The survey, which has 23 questions, will run for six weeks until October 28.

Deirdre Dee-Hounsom, the steering group’s chairman, said it had carefully crafted the questions so it could best understand what the business community wanted, in order to improve the economic and social environment within the area over the next 15 years.

A second residents’ survey will be launched in five weeks.

Deirdre said the steering group wanted to ensure it had a balanced input to support its goal to develop a Neighbourhood Plan which, after external examination, would be adopted, if agreed to by voters in a referendum.

Deirdre said: “As a group, we would like to be as inclusive as possible. Sidmouth has a lot of different people coming from different walks of life, of all different age groups. What some people pick up, others may not. By sending out this business survey, we hope to get a well-rounded idea of what people who live and work in the Sid Valley want for their future.”

Visit www.sidmouth.gov.uk for more information.