VDS Covering Letter

Here at last is your copy of Lavenham's Village Design Statement.

As promised when we sent out the Questionnaire "How Do We Live In Lavenham?" for the Village Survey, the finished Statement is being delivered free to every household and every business address in Lavenham.

The Statement encapsulates the huge amount of material given in your answers to the Questionnaire; the compilers of this final draft are enormously grateful to everyone who contributed an opinion.

You may not agree with everything here, but you can be certain that it is all based on the views we collected from you, the people of Lavenham. The Survey was made in 1999, the answers were digested and published in 2000, and we think that the Statement has finally produced what we aimed at: "A Millennium Snapshot of Lavenham".

You will be hearing of Government attempts to promote "grass-roots" consultations like this one; it is the first to be undertaken and completed for any town or village in Babergh District. The District and Parish Councils have approved it for certain planning purposes, so you should keep it for future reference.

The VDS Association is required by its Constitution to dissolve itself as soon as its task is completed. Delivering this copy to you is that final task.

Now it's up to you, the voters, to see that the elected Councils and the voluntary societies get these ideas put into practice.

With best wishes from everyone who has worked in the Association to all who live in Lavenham.

Donald Whitton,
Chairman of the Lavenham VDS Association.

Lavenham Hall, Hall Road.
August 2002.