East Farleigh is a small village near Maidstone with some major traffic problems. Their village plan identified this as a priority issue for the Parish Council, and so an Action Group was formed to develop some plans that might help address the issue. Their first step was to appoint specialist traffic management consultants to review the volume of motor vehicles at several key locations, and to develop some proposals for how these might be addressed.

 

CSC was then appointed to host two consultation events which enabled residents to see and comment on an exhibition of the possible solutions. For this event, we summarised the problems and the solutions on separate displays and invited them to leave comments on post-it notes on an adjoining display board; they were also invited to complete a questionnaire about each proposal. Over 130 people came to the exhibition and left their comments: the survey forms were analysed using market research software and the comments on the post-it notes were also collated and summarised, so that we had a strong database of qualitative and quantitative information. That information was then compiled into a report which the Parish Council are currently using in their negotiations with Kent County Council on which plans should be implemented.  Barbara Dagger, a member of the Action Group said:

 

 "CSC were professional, approachable and easy to work with, offering advice and assistance whenever it was required. We felt the consultation report produced was of a very high standard, taking into account everyone’s views. It was expressed in a format which was clear and factual to all interested parties, and we are hopeful that it will go a long way in helping us to improve the safety of pedestrians and traffic as it travels through our village."