IF you run a business, big or small, then your views matter – and the steering group behind the Lea’s Neighbourhood Development Plan would love to hear from you.

Just four miles outside Ross-on-Wye, and straddling the A40, the Lea sits close to the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire border.

The NDP’s steering committee wants to know what your priorities are. That is the case no matter whether you already run a business in the Lea, are contemplating starting one or thinking of moving your existing activities to Herefordshire’s best-located village.

“Is it the availability of land that matters?” asked steering committee chair, Sylvia Nicholls, “or is it the quality of the transport links that is the key?” She also wonders if broadband speed or the skills of the local workforce would influence a decision.

No matter whether you are self-employed or an SME – Small and Medium-size Enterprise - then the group want to know what you would like to see included in the NDP.

Put together by local people for local people while at all times respecting county-wide and national policies, an NDP sets out how a community wants to evolve over the coming years. It addresses everything from the extent of housing development and where it should go to ways in which businesses, employment provision and local facilities and services should be supported. A statutory document, its contents must be taken into account by, for example, developers who wish to construct more dwellings in the village.

"The Lea is open for business," says Sylvia, "And we’re open to the views of business people."

Businesses that wish to have a say in Lea’s NDP should email