SUMMARY OF RESULTS OF COMMUNITY SURVEY
September 1, 2010

The Land Management Group of Buckingham Estate formed a committee consisting of Leonie-Ruth Acland, Barbara Chambers and John Spriggs to undertake a survey of the Buckingham community.  The mail out survey was conducted during the week ending Wednesday, July 21, 2010.  A digest of the survey results is presented below.
There were a total of 21 respondents (6 from the North side and 15 from the south side).  The questions and the summary of responses are as follows

1. Why did you come to Buckingham Estate?

Reason	Number of responses#
For rural community lifestyle	13
More space	12
A good place to raise kids	8
To keep animals	7
For village lifestyle	7
To be more self-sufficient	4
To be near place of work; lower cost of living	0

                                # Respondents could give multiple reasons

1. How important is ‘community’ to you?

Level of Importance	Number of responses
Very important	7
Somewhat important	13
Not important	1

1. Do you feel a sense of community at Buckingham Estate?

Sense of community	Number of responses
Yes	14
No, but that’s how I like it	2
No, but would like to	4
No response	1

1. What, if anything could be done to improve the sense of community at Buckingham?
1. Regular meetings in hall, encourage residents to attend AGM
2. Improved communication
3. Physical linking between north and south and all areas of estate by walkways and cycle paths
4. More community activities leading to greater community ownership through involvement of families and owners.  These may include:
1. tree planting, community garden, walking trails, beautification projects along household fence lines, labyrinth, seating to enjoy views
2. Social nights, social events, community gatherings
3. Monthly produce swap meet

 

1. Are you aware that Buckingham has strata community title rules and guidelines

Aware of strata title rules and guidelines	Number of responses
Yes	20
No	0
No response	1

1. Are you comfortable with the existing rules and guidelines?

Comfortable with existing rules and guidelines	Number of responses
Yes	14
No	5
No response	2

1. Would you like to see any of the rules and guidelines changed?

A few respondents suggested a need for general review/updating/adjustments.  In addition there were individual comments as follows:

1. Enforce existing rules (2 residents proposed this)
2. Review limits on kept animals such as dogs, sheep and horses (3 residents)
3. Rules for cats needed
4. Animal breeding for sustainability should be allowed
5. Requirement to have cars garaged is petty
6.  Allow containers but they should be painted to go with house colour or screened
7. Garbage collection, garbage recycling facilities
8. Review rule on concrete tanks
9. Review rule on trail bikes.

1. What are the priorities for development at Buckingham Estate?  For this question respondents were asked to provide a ranking out of the 12 options and also provide other ideas for development.  The ranking of the 12 alternatives over all respondents was:

Ranking	Priorities for development
1 (most important)	Weed management
2	Tree planting
3	Infrastructure maintenance (e.g. roads and fencing)
4	Maintenance of community hall
5	Walking trails
6	Establish park areas
7	Stock water supply
8	Delivery of bore water to households
9	Identify ways to make money for the estate
10	Establish a community garden for fresh produce
11	Erect a stone wall at entrance to McDonnell Drive
12 (least important)	More horse paddocks

The other ideas for development were:

1. Community rules enforcement
2. Fire hazard reduction
3. Investigate viability of running Buckingham as an agistment property for horses
4. Improve signage for McDonnell Drive off Tarago Road
5. Rubbish collection/removal
6. Lettering on stage 1 wall repaired and stone work repaired
7. Truffle tree planting

1. How should community property be used in the future?

Community property should be…	Number of responses
Leased to a local farmer	8
Farmed as a community	7
Employ a manager	0
Other (specify)	Lease grazing on a rotational basis
	Agist under strict guidelines
	Improve hall and rent out for functions
	Leave as community land to walk and enjoy

 

1. How often would you be available for a working bee?

How often for a working bee?	Number of responses
Once a month	8
Every 2 to 3 months	4
Every 6 months	6
Once a year	1
Never	1

1. Would you be willing to participate in a workshop to refine these ideas for development of Buckingham?

Would you participate in a workshop?	Number of responses
Yes	15
No	1
No response	5

1. Any other comments?
1. Need to take ownership
2. Regular committee meetings plus open meetings to community
3. Very  happy here; good place to live; great community; friendly neighbours
4. Make community land less of a “paddock” and more of a “bush” experience.
5. Plant with native trees
6. Walking
7. Remind motorists of speed limit on estate
8. Eliminate trail bikes
9. Continued safe haven for wildlife
10. Enforce rules more strongly. Forget forcing people to invest in businesses like the truffle farm.  I'm not sure this and similar are legal.  Just because we are not interested in community activities doesn't mean we have no interest in seeing Buckingham properly managed

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