On Thursday it's your chance to vote on Newmarket's future direction in the town's Neighbourhood Plan referendum

Whether it’s parking or the state of Queensbury Lodge, more support for special needs education, or the need for a cinema and a youth drop-in centre, Newmarket residents all have an opinion on what’s good or not so good about the town they call home.

It’s their neighbourhood and now it has a ‘plan’ which, if approved on Thursday, will provide the blueprint for its development over the next decade and beyond.

The idea of a neighbourhood plan for the town first took root six years ago when, following a presentation made to the community planning group of Newmarket Vision, a partnership of public, private and voluntary sector groups all working to trying to improve the town, by Forest Heath District Council.

The outcome was the setting up of a neighbourhood plan committee, which numbered both town councillors and residents among its members.

In 2015 Newmarket Town Council agreed to prepare a neighbourhood plan and the committee became a steering group regularly reporting back to the authority on its progress.

Dr Rachel Wood, a key member of the plan’s steering group, said it had done its best to be impartial.

“While we each have our own perspective on living in Newmarket, we are all committed to ensuring the future prosperity of our town,” she said.

And she believed the completed plan, which has been based on extensive local consultation over a number of years, has given residents a real say in how they would like to see it develop.

“Everyone’s voice was important to us. We spoke to a wide variety of residents and lots of people’s views are quoted in the plan,” she said. “We always believed the more people that had a say, the stronger the document would become.”

The plan is not just a wish list of things people would like to see in the town. It was primarily designed to set the policies which will govern the use of the land within its designated area and if it is adopted it can be used in determining future planning applications and appeals relating to Newmarket.

And it is the planning polices in the plan that residents will be deciding on when they go to the polls.

“I would encourage everyone to read it,” said Dr Wood. “We have tried our best to produce a plan that represents what the people who live here think and because lots of people have had an input into it we think it has more gravitas.

“It’s hard to find a consensus and there were bound to be polarised views but in the end it’s about what we share not what divides us. We actually went out to talk to people and we felt it was not enough to say ‘we are here come and talk to us’. A lot of leg work and listening has gone into this and the plan’s independent examiner was very positive about the amount of consultation we had done which had been something we had really worked on.”

The plan has looked at all aspects of life in the town from roads, parking and transport to education, shopping and leisure facilities.

As well as policies the plan lists community actions, initiatives which have been identified through the consultation process with residents which were specifically recorded so they could be acted upon and with the expectation that Newmarket Town Council will pursue them.

Issues raised included concerns about illegal parking across the town and education, specifically that since 2017 there had been no sixth form provision in Newmarket.

“A town the size of Newmarket should provide post 16 educational opportunities for all its young people,” said the plan, “and if there are sufficient numbers of students in the future it would be desirable for a sixth form to be re-established in the town.”

Support was also suggested for the development of a site in the town to address the need for special educational needs and disability provision, particularly if the site was next to an existing primary school.

Working with others to develop a youth drop-in centre and trim trails or open air gyms around the town was another identified action as there was a lack of public open space for informal recreational activities. The plan noted that a preferred location for a shared community sports and recreational area would be the currently vacant former St Felix middle school site.

Valuing and protecting the town’s environment was another objective of the plan which said it was important that every street in the town had a ‘pleasing visual impact’.

Actions suggested included supporting local groups and projects which organised litter picking and putting pressure on local authorities namely West Suffolk district and Suffolk county councils to maintain verges to a higher standard and avoid the unnecessary use of weed killer.

The town’s trees would be audited in a bid to establish an on-going planting programme including the replacement of street trees which had died or been felled.

Re-instatement of the town’s household recycling centre is another priority outlined in the plan.

“I am really glad I had the opportunity to work on this,” said Dr Wood, “and I and everyone on the steering group are very proud of it. Now we hope people will read it.”