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Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Does the parish council have to do
all the work?
A. No. It’s far better to involve a wide
range of volunteers from throughout the community to prepare the plan. The
parish council needs to apply for the grant and should keep an overview of the
plan while it is being prepared.
Q. Are the results of the Parish Plan
binding on the parish council?
A. The parish council should endorse the
final plan and use it as a statement of policy. They may be responsible for
taking forward some of the actions, and they should be encouraged to do so.
Q. How many applications get turned
down?
A. None, while there is still funding
available! If the application comes from the parish council of a community of
under 10,000 population and, as long as you have filled in all the forms
correctly, you will get offered a grant. Larger communities should discuss their
ideas with the relevant CA regional office first.
Q. How long will it take to prepare a
Parish Plan?
A. Between 12 to 18 months.
Involving other people/organisations
Q. Is it ok to work with other bodies
like the police and health authorities?
A. Yes. Many public bodies now have a
statutory duty to consult the public on many issues and you may be able to make
a positive contribution to planning and service delivery. It is a good idea to
involve these and other service providers at the start of the exercise. They
might even help with some funding.
Q. Do district and county councils fully
support Parish Plans?
A. Some local authorities have positive
policies towards community led action plans. Others are still developing an
understanding of Parish Plans and how they might use them to inform policy and
decision-making. It will help if you consult your local councillor about your
Parish Plan and to try to involve them in the process.
Q. How does the Parish Plan relate to
the community strategy?
A. Community strategies are still being
developed and the ways in which a Parish Plan could influence a community
strategy are still being tested. We hope Parish Plans will provide clear
evidence of need and priority in relation to a range of services and that they
will be able to feed into the process.
Q. Does the local authority have to take
any notice of our plan – does it have any formal status?
A. Parish Plans do not currently have any
formal status, and they cannot override agreed planning policy. But, if you
start a dialogue with the local authority (and other service providers) at an
early stage in preparing the plan, you should be able to identify where they can
help you and where you might be able to influence them.
Q. The guidance says we can pay for
outside professional help – can we pay someone in the village to do it?
A. Yes. There might be somebody in the
village with the right skills and experience, for example carrying out a survey,
data analysis or writing up the final plan. This might be a student who is
currently on vacation, someone who is recently retired and has time on their
hands, or even the parish clerk who wants to get more involved with the plan.
Previous village plans &appraisals
Q. We did a village appraisal/village
design statement a couple of years ago. Where does this fit in?
A. Such documents are very useful starting
points for a Parish Plan. You should review existing plans and see if they are
still relevant, which issues still need to be addressed and identify if new
issues have arisen. The final Parish Plan might identify building development
and design as an issue and one of the actions from your Parish Plan might be to
produce a village design statement.
What are the benefits of producing a
Parish Plan?
Q. Will it help us get a new village
hall/youth club?
A. Yes. If you have consulted widely with
the community and come up with clear evidence of need, a Parish Plan will
certainly help you make the case to a range of funding bodies for cash for such
projects.
Q. We’ve done this before and nothing
came of it - How could we be sure it’ll bring benefits to the village?
A. As soon as you start working on the plan
consult and involve the people and organisations that might help you achieve
what you want (eg. local authorities, health & police). When you produce the
final action plan make sure you have nominated individuals or small groups
within the parish who will follow up action points and make things happen.
Q. If the parish council get the grant
from the Countryside Agency, how does the steering committee make sure it’s
spent the way it wants?
A. The steering committee and the parish
council need to agree on a project plan which will set out how the grant will be
spent and over what timescale. See also in the resource pack advice on
"Constitutions" and "Terms of Reference" which should help
ensure you’re all working to the same agenda.
Q. Our parish council is made up of
people who’ve been there for years – they never do anything, let alone a
Parish Plan!
A. The parish council themselves don’t
have to do all the work. In fact it is best if volunteers do most of the work,
with the parish council in a monitoring role as part of the steering committee.
But you will need to convince them that a Parish Plan is a good idea. This could
be an opportunity to revitalise the parish council and get other people
involved!
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