Innovative Map Survey Launched for Whitby Residents

Tuesday, 2 May 2023 06:00

By Matthew Pells

Whitby residents can now use an interactive map to suggest where improvements could be made to the town.

Whitby Community Network is using a new online map to gather residents opinions about the town.

They've launched an online consultation where local people can provide feedback about areas of the town that could be improved.

Andy Jefferson from the group says the map based survey is really easy to use.

The consultation will run throughout May, and will involve the availability of a Whitby Parish specific "CreateStreets" map. Using this map residents can think about what locations in the town they like or dislike, say why, and suggest what could be improved at that location. What should be protected in the town, and what should be improved.

Clinking on a location on the map opens a window where residents can enter their thoughts about that place.

The Community Network say that

"the consultation is open to all residents of Whitby and District (Whitby Parish and the surrounding 16 parishes). The reason for it being not just for Whitby parish residents is that there are significant numbers of people in the District who either work, are educated, or shop here, and so should have a say."

Andy Jefferson from the community network says they hope to gather a wealth of useful information which will be publicly available.

Andy adds:

"Submitting an opinion on a single location should take maybe 1 minute, and is totally anonymous. It is a very quick process, but could have long lasting impact for the future of the town.

Whilst it will clearly be very convenient for people with internet access, there are still many people in the Whitby and District area without such access, particularly given the ageing population that we have. To tackle this important issue WCN are also making it possible to take part by providing simple input slips at a series of locations where they can also be returned for processing : Whitby Coliseum, Eastside Centre, Green Lane Centre, and St Johns Ambulance Hall (some other community centres may be added); all input slips will be entered into the online system manually so that the end goal for the parish is a relatively complete definition of residents opinions. "

Once the consultation has completed, WCN say they will

publish all data, in full, on the WCN website, because openness and transparency is something we actually work to and, unlike councils, not just talk about. Resident's views must be visible and respected,
analyse the input to establish headline conclusions,
feed the findings to Whitby Town Council and North Yorkshire Council, so that the information can be utilised in future funding bids and define the future direction of the town,
actively campaign for items where there are common themes amongst the views of residents be they housing, public transport, active travel, education, and so on,
assess the relative success of the consultation and, dependent on the thoughts of the surrounding Parish Councils and available funding, consider performing a second consultation but this time for the Whitby District (omitting Whitby Parish).

An overview of the consultation can be found at https://www.whitbycommunitynetwork.org/vision-for-whitby/

The map itself can be found at https://communities.createstreets.com/Whitby