Appendix 4: Handout for Public Consultation Meeting.

WHAT IS A PARISH PLAN?

The parish plan is the vision the parish community has of how it would like to develop: what kind of parish community we want to be.

This vision should be as comprehensive as we want: covering everything that we feel is relevant to what makes, or could make, our parish the community we would like.
This can include anything from employment to the environment; housing to hedges; playgrounds to ponds – whatever our community feels is important.

The parish plan is our ‘design statement’, how we want to see our parish develop.

What should a Parish Plan include?

1. The Vision
The parish plan sets out the vision we have for our development over the next 5 to 10 years.

2. The Action Plan
Some of this vision can be accomplished by the activities and decisions of our own community: by the parish council, local groups and individuals. These will be set out in the Action Plan.

3. The Broader Context
Some of the vision will depend on the decisions and policies of bodies beyond our immediate community, such as the Local Authority, service providers such as bus companies, etc and statutory agencies, the Primary Care Trust for example.

The parish plan will set out the policies and frameworks of outside bodies which the plan seeks to influence.

Who is responsible for the Parish Plan?

The Parish Council is the ‘lead authority’ for the plan. It is the Parish Council’s job to develop and endorse the Parish Plan.

To do this the Council must ensure that as many local people and businesses as possible are involved in creating the plan.

The Parish Plan has to be consistent with the relevant Local Authority policies.

The story of the Bishampton and Throckmorton Parish Plan…..so far…..

In November 2002, the Parish Council made the decision to start work on producing a parish plan. Until then, parish energies had been taken up with, first the Foot and Mouth crisis and then with the fight against the proposed Asylum Seekers’ Centre. With the removal of this threat, the Parish Council seized the opportunity to become proactive, to start thinking ahead and planning for the future. .

The PC invited people to join a Parish Plan Steering Group, through notices in the Newsletter, and information on the parish website. The steering group has been made up of people from Bishampton, Throckmorton and Tilesford. As well as a core of regular people, others have dipped in and out, and membership remains open – we always welcome new members even if you only want to come once to see what we are up to, or to discuss a particular issue.

For several months the steering group met every other Sunday afternoon, developing a timetable, applying for a Parish Plan Grant, and deciding how to go about consulting the community on which issues the plan should cover.

THE HOT TOPICS QUESTIONNAIRE

In the end, we decided to use a very short questionnaire, which asked people to tell us their top three ‘issues’. We thought people would be more likely to fill out a brief questionnaire, and one that didn’t ask for lots of box ticking!

We asked between 20 and 25% of the parish to complete this questionnaire.

….why only 20-25%?

In fact we asked the whole parish to let us know their hot topics, through the Newsletter, and by having a stall at the Throckmorton Rustic Revels.

However, we wanted to make sure we got as many questionnaires back as possible and believed the way to do this was by using the personal touch. So members of the steering group undertook to deliver, and most importantly, call back and get, a dozen or so questionnaires each.

We thought that 20 to 25% was a big enough sample to get a good snapshot of the community’s views, while being small enough to manage giving out and collecting.

We are very grateful to the 80 plus households who took the time and trouble to complete the questionnaires, and to the steering group members who did the leg work in delivering and collecting them!

It turned out that many people took the opportunity to list more than their top three issues, and many also made suggestions as to what they thought should be done about the issues.

……what did we find?

In total we received 88 completed questionnaires.

It turned out that many people took the opportunity to list more than three issues, and many also made suggestions as to what they would like done their hot topics! In all we had 330 comments.

We sorted these comments according to the issues they referred to and this revealed 9 hot topics.

• Public transport – the lack of!
• The landfill site
• Village life – facilities, environment & infrastructure
• Young people
• Roads – repair, traffic, speeding, HGVs etc.
• The Parish Council
• The future of the airfield
• Housing
• Village health

In October we learnt that we would have to push ahead with the vision for the airfield, landfill site, and associated roads and traffic. if we were to see our views reflected in the Wychavon District Local Plan.

…..the future of the airfield
We asked three different people, who had had no previous involvement in the parish plan, to sort the airfield proposals into categories of broadly similar suggestions.

From this it emerged that three main suggestions were being made:

1. Keep it green!
2. Use it for small scale, high tech industry
3. Use it for leisure/recreation/sports facilities

Some comments suggested a combination of these.

There were also a few other suggestions, e.g. for wind farms, and housing.

…….the future of the tip

We didn’t do the same for the Landfill Site because there were far fewer comments that made specific suggestions, and all those were for the tip to be developed eventually into some form of parkland or returned to agricultural use.

Most of the comments referred to issues of current management of the tip (see display board) and these issues will be carried forward into the plan.

……roads and transport in relation to local business activities

Most of the comments about roads were about their state of repair, unsuitability for heavy goods vehicles, speeding through villages etc. These are shown on the display board.

A few specifically supported the new by-pass, or the planned road from the by-pass to the tip..

What Next?

We will be putting forward the Parish’s views on the Airfield, Tip and Roads for the Public Inquiry into the Local Plan.

However, the Parish Plan is about much more than those three topics, important as they are.

We will be sorting Hot Topic Comments about the other issues identified in the questionnaire and consulting again with you as to what your think should go into the plan.

In the meantime, please make any comments you want to, here today. Or ask if you want a Hot Topics questionnaire to fill out – it’s not too late.

And, come along to a steering group meeting. They are informal and open to all.

For more information, contact any of the following: