A COMMUNNITY targeted by a number of developers in recent years, has applied for Neighbourhood Area designation, which will ultimately allows its residents to state where and how they would like their town to develop.

A steering group led by Stokesley Parish Council has applied to Hambleton District Council have the town designated a Neighbourhood Area.

If approved, the status will allow it to go ahead and draw up a Neighbourhood Plan, which will formally state developments residents would like to see in Stokesley over the next five to ten years in leisure, transport, parking, retail, housing, employment and health and social care.

The idea came after a group of residents in the town formed Save Our Stokesley, to fight plans for a proposed supermarket on the town’s bypass, which many feared would kill off trade for the High Street’s many independent shops and businesses.

The developers eventually pulled the plug on the proposals, but several members of Save Our Stokesley felt rather than continually reacting to developers, they should seize the initiative and articulate what the town did want.

One member, Ian Blakemore, who has since joined Stokesley Parish Council, said: “We thought it would be better to harness what people do want rather than get them to stand against what they don’t.

“But it’s much more difficult for people to say what they do want. Around that time we saw there was the neighbourhood plan and thought we should give that a go.”

They held a meeting earlier this summer where residents could write down their ideas for what they thought should be the priorities in the town’s future development over the next few years.

Ideas were written on coloured sticky notes and stuck on a wall.

“That meeting really was the beginning of a process of gathering people’s views,” said Cllr Blakemore.

“It involved saying ‘What would you like to see more of? Do you want better parking? More shops? More houses?”

In the end 1,500 coloured sticky notes containing suggestions were amassed. One of the most popular suggestions was securing the future of the library and better parking in the town, but there were also new suggestions such as installing a climbing wall at the leisure centre.

The Neighbourhood Plan steering group is now analysing the data.

Once its Neighbourhood Area status is approved by Hambleton council, the steering group will send a questionnaire out to the whole town based on the feedback and use it to draw up a Neighbourhood Plan.