Whitley Bay Town Council Survey Form

(Please read background and guide to survey form below)

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Your contact details

Please note - the details marked with a # are essential to enable the form to be submitted

Mr Mrs Ms Dr Cllr. Other Title
First Name #
Surname #
First Line of Address #
Postcode #

E-mail Address #
Telephone No. (Landline) #
Telephone No. (Mobile)

Whitley Bay Monkseaton North Monkseaton South St. Mary's Cullercoats Collingwood Valley None of the above North Tyneside Council - Electoral Ward

Your views, comments and questions
Don't know Yes No Do you want to have a Town (Parish) Council for Whitley Bay?

If your answer above, is "Yes" or "Don't know",
please select your preferance for the area to be included: -
Whitley Bay Ward Whitley Bay + Monseaton North and South Wards Whitley Bay + Monseaton North and South + St. Mary's Wards Another area (please describe below)

Please use the following box to provide your views etc. about
the idea of a Town (Parish) Council for Whitley Bay.

Please check your entries to the survey form before you send it!!

Background and Guide to Survey Form

There was a North East Area Forum in March 2008 on the single topic of a Town/Parish Council for Whitley Bay. In a well attended meeting a representative of the National Association of Local Councils outlined the role and responsibilities of a Parish or Town Council.

At the end of the meeting I told the chairman, Cllr. Jackson that I would do some research on the topic during the following 2 months and let him know the outcome. The information that I obtained included advice from Alan Campbell MP and a leading councillor for Exmouth Town Council, where I lived as a child. The outcome was posted on 27 April 2008 on the LOCAL page of this website so that it is widely available to those with an interest.

The letter from Alan Campbell gives advice on how a town council could be formed. One way is for North Tyneside Council to instigate a 'community governance review' on its own initiative. The other way, which I prefer, is for the community itself to oblige the Council to carry out a 'community governance review' through a petition that "would have to be signed by at least 10% of the electors and define the area to which the review is to relate".

I would like to gauge the views of the local community and to that end I am carrying out this survey over the next 6 months. The survey form allows a choice of what area a town council for Whitley Bay might cover and plenty of space for individuals to express their views.

Towards the end of the survey period I will draft a report to be submitted to NT Council. The draft report will be available to all who completed the survey form to allow them to influence the final version before it is submitted. I will also take into account ideas and opinions expressed by those who may prefer to use other means than by filling a form.

Your contact details will NOT be supplied to any third party. I will take note of more than one submission if each of them contains identical contact details - this allows you to change your views or develop your ideas during the period of the survey!

Robin Smith 15 September 2009

Please help to publicise the survey by forwarding a link to this page to others who may not have read the article on page 11 of the News Guardian of 8 October 2009. The article was drawn from a letter sent to the News Guardian on 15 September last and would have got more publicity if it had been published on the "Letters to the Editor" pages!

Robin Smith 14 October 2009