Why create a parish plan?
Parish planning has many benefits for local people that include:
- Creating a greater sense of community spirit
- Providing clear evidence of the needs and priorities of your community to inform the community strategy, influence the service plans of the statutory agencies, highlight projects which would benefit from the involvement of other agencies and encourage partnership working
- Setting out a business plan for the town or parish council to adopt and take action on
- Providing easy to access evidence on which to base funding applications
Naturally town and parish councils have a role to play in stimulating, supporting and guiding this activity.
What is a parish plan?
A parish plan is, in short, a statement of how the community hopes to develop over the next few years. It:
- Reflects on the views of all sections of the community
- Identifies the social, economic and environmental characteristics that people value
- Detects local problems and explores opportunities to overcome them
- Draws out and indicates how the community wants to develop in the future
- Prepares a plan of action to achieve this vision and to determine who needs to be involved
South Gloucestershire Council is supportive of parish plans as a means of community engagement and is keen to assist its town and parish councils to achieve the aspirations of the communities they represent. A guidance booklet has been produced with information and advice on how to carry out the process and get the most from the effort put in. This guide can be found in the 'Read more' section of this page.
There is also a community chest grant available to help carry out the actions resulting from a plan in progress or completed. This can be found in the 'Read more' section of this page.