STUDENTS at the University of Gloucestershire are helping businesses and organisations in Minchinhampton shape the areas future.

As part of a new approach, Minchinhampton Parish Council is creating the Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) which establishes planning policies for development, allowing local people to be involved.

Eleanor Wear and Anthony Woodthorpe, who are studying BA (Hons) Geography, are helping to construct and carry out an opinion survey of businesses in the wards of Amberley, Box, Brimscombe, and Minchinhampton North and South wards.

The survey goes live today (Thursday) and is aimed only at businesses and community groups, with separate resident and housing needs surveys having been conducted already.

It will close on December 5. As a policy document the NDP will affect what happens in the parish from its adoption until 2031.

Evidence will be gathered through surveys and consultation with residents, community groups and businesses.

Policies will then be developed, a plan drafted for approval and then support will be sought from the community via a referendum before it can be adopted as a legal document.

The referendum for a Minchinhampton Parish NDP is planned for February 2018.

Kenny Lynch, Reader in Geography at the University of Gloucestershire, said: “I am delighted that the Minchinhampton Parish Council and the Steering Group for their Neighbourhood Development Plan are willing to work with us.

“It is great the students are able to develop a survey of businesses as a part of this process that will allow them to fulfil their course requirements and at the same time provide the Minchinhampton team with the data and their analysis.

“This kind of community based research is a fantastic learning opportunity that makes our Geography degree programme both relevant and exciting for the students.”

Student Eleanor Wear added: "This is an exciting opportunity for us to work on a live project and apply the skills we have learnt to a real world issue.

“This project is particularly relevant as my dissertation research is based on neighbourhood planning and is an area of work I would like to pursue after completing my degree."

Nick Hurst, Chair of Minchinhampton Parish Council, said: “We are delighted that the university have agreed to include us in their course work as a live project.

“As a practical application of planning concerns we believe the students will bring fresh thinking to our project.

“The information we hope to get from this exercise should provide essential data to enrich our Neighbourhood Development Plan.

“After all, healthy commercial activity is absolutely vital to the sustained wellbeing of our community, and we need to understand the concerns our businesses face.”

Phil Raby Smith, chair of the Minchinhampton NDP steering group, said: “We’re incredibly grateful to the students who are undertaking this survey of the businesses of the parish.

“We were delighted with the high response rate to our residents’ surveys and we expect businesses and we expect businesses and community bodies will show equal interest in ensuring their views help shape the future of Minchinhampton’s communities.”

The link to the business survey is http://bit.ly/MinchBizQ and the link to community groups is bit.ly/MinchCommQ both surveys go live on 17 November and close on 5 December.

To find out more visit www.minchinhamptonndp.com/ or contact the NDP team at minchinhamptonndp@gmail.com