YOUR PARISH
To Help Prepare A Parish Plan
Meetings Report
The three meetings were very successful and many ideas and comments were provided. Based on these, a questionnaire will be developed and circulated to all parishioners in the New Year. We hope to have a good response from this questionnaire, with enough consensus to construct a Parish Plan. Thank you all for your input.
Why Have a Parish Plan?
The Parish Plan is more than just a report on the results of a survey. It draws together the identified needs of the community, addresses their feasibility and how and when they can be implemented.
It links in with existing or future strategies from organizations that have an impact on the development of community services and facilities.
These include:
roads and traffic
planning and development
crime
the environment and health
as well as other issues that are regulated by statutory authorities such as the Police and the Health Authority.
It also provides a lobbying tool as it can demonstrate evidence of local need
and commitment to potential outside sources of funding.
Please send your ideas to the following email address and they will be discussed at the next parish plan meeting or why not come along and have your say in your parish plan.
This Parish Plan is to be prepared and owned by residents to reflect our views, which is where we, the first few volunteers, need your help.
The Story So Far
Since the last parish newsletter (Winter 2006), a meeting was held at the Trinity Rooms on 17th January to discuss the possibility of forming a Parish Plan. The meeting was very well attended with around 120 people being present.
The meeting was chaired by the Parish Council with guest speakers Jonathan Bell and Sunilla Osbourne from Suffolk ACRE. The presentation set out the opportunity that our parishes have to draw up our own plan of how we would like to see our communities develop. The government is promoting active citizenship and now is an opportune time for our community to identify its needs for the future through a parish plan. This will help identify our needs to Service Providers (Highways, Police, Primary Care Trusts, etc.) who are being encouraged to seek ‘grassroots’ views so that they can deliver a better service to meet those needs. Over the past few years Parish/Town Consultations have come in many guises, but basically they all consult the community and have an action plan drawn up to address the issues identified.
At the end of the meeting comments were invited from the audience and a number of strong opinions about issues affecting the parishes were put forward and noted. Volunteers were asked to put their names forward if they were interested in helping prepare a Parish Plan and a small number did sign up.
Following that first meeting, the volunteers were invited to attend a second meeting, where it was announced that the Parish Council intends to go forward with the preparation of a Parish Plan.