The Local Jigsaw: Village Appraisals and Parish Maps

This video discusses to activities and outputs which aim to bring people together within a locality and enable them to take action. Village appraisals are surveys done by locals, often resulting in a booklet, which lists physical and social resources, to be used in negotiation over planning and in problem solving (01). They provide information for village planning and give villagers the chance to discuss what they want (03). Two examples show how village appraisals were used in the UK: one resulted in specific recommendations being presented to local government about transport and infrastructure, and led to change in the attitude of stakeholders to new developments (03-06); another enabled a village to approach local government and make demands, giving more hope to villagers (07-10). Parish maps show what resources are valued in a community. In one example this was done so that there was less chance that valued resources would be destroyed (10-14). Another example shows how five villages came together to raise awareness about natural conservation areas and footpaths (14-16).