If you live in Kingsbridge, West Alvington or Churchstow, now is your chance to fill in a simple questionnaire to give your views on local planning and development priorities.

The questionnaire is sent out by the steering group for the Kingsbridge, West Alvington and Churchstow Neighbourhood Plan.

Richard Benton, chair of the steering group, emphasised the importance of this first phase of community consultation.

He said: “Our first key task as a steering group is to discover what local residents of Kingsbridge, West Alvington and Churchstow think are the most important land use and local development issues that need to be included in the Neighbourhood Plan.

“Steering Group members have ideas of their own but we must make sure we take into account opinions from as wide a range of residents and businesses as possible. The proposed planning policies we write next will be based on the feedback from these initial questionnaires, and we’ll then consult local people on these as well.

“If we don’t work in this way the plan will be rejected later by the Government Inspector, and local people won’t want to vote for it anyway!

“To get to as many people as possible we’re delivering a paper copy of our initial questionnaire to every address in the Plan area so residents and businesses can see how straightforward this is to complete. The Royal Mail will deliver questionnaires to all household and business addresses in the Kingsbridge Town Council area, which includes Dodbrooke, during early February.

“At the same time West Alvington Parish Council will be delivering questionnaires to all addresses in their area, and hoping to talk about the Neighbourhood Plan to residents and business owners as they go.”

If you choose to fill in the paper questionnaire, you can drop it into the Kingsbridge Town Council office, or post it to them at Quay House, Ilbert Road, Kingsbridge, Devon, TQ7 1DZ. You can also complete it online, by finding it on the front page of the website: kingsbridgeplan.org.uk.

Churchstow Parish Council will also be delivering by hand, but are using a differently worded questionnaire to reflect the recent planning history of the parish, which has already had a good deal of discussion amongst residents.

This questionnaire is only available on paper, but you can drop it into the Post Office stores in the village. Churchstow residents are welcome to fill in the general questionnaire as well if they have ideas or views about facilities in Kingsbridge town.

The steering group have set a closing date for completion and return of questionnaires by March 9, and there will be posters and banners around the area to remind you.

Richard added: “The Neighbourhood Plan will have a big influence on local planning and development decisions until 2034, so it’s really important.”