Questions will be asked by a Holybourne man in a bid to get a blueprint for the future of Alton back on track.

Paul Fitzgibbon suggested Alton Town Council should conduct a “lessons learnt” exercise following a difficult month for them and the draft neighbourhood plan.

The plan was meant to go to public consultation only for councillors to defer the move amid concerns about the omission of possible housing sites and its credibility.

The resignation of seven neighbourhood plan steering group members – including its chair and vice-chair – duly followed with ATC making a call for new members.

Mr Fitzgibbon suggested at last Wednesday’s ATC meeting that the council could use the immediate period to conduct a post-mortem of sorts.

He even offered to conduct a free, quick and potentially “very useful” survey of previous steering group members, EHDC officers, consultants, residents’ groups and ATC staff about what worked, what didn’t work, and what improvements could be made going forward.

He said: “It seems to me this could be done very quickly, be potentially very useful and would cost nothing.

“It would also demonstrate the council wants to learn from the process.”

Mr Fitzgibbon told councillors he had made “a start of sorts” in the 48 hours before the meeting.

He added: “I have received some very interesting and potentially useful feedback and it was incredibly easy to do. 

“My simple request is for the council to approve proceeding with this suggestion at this meeting so I can get on with it.”

However, as the offer was not on the ATC agenda for decision, the council could not make a formal resolution, so Mr Fitzgibbon will undertake the survey alone.

He will present the findings at the council’s early November workshop in the hope they will find the information useful.