Further information

What does creating a parish plan involve?

Creating a parish plan involves:

• Collecting the views, opinions and ideas of all local people;
• Gathering evidence and comments about local issues;
• Analysing the information, and;
• Developing an action plan to address issues and shape the future of your community.

What does a Parish Plan cover?

A Parish Plan should address all relevant issues, for example:

• Housing;
• Children and Young People;
• Local Democracy;
• Transport;
• Local Services;
• Social and Community Facilities;
• Planning and Design of the area;
• Land and the Countryside;
• Economy and Business;
• Environment, Recycling and Conservation, and;
• Distinctive Local Features or Buildings.

Our Community Development Team and Norfolk Rural Community Council can help you with this work, through:

• practical support;
• funding, and;
• sharing good ideas and practice.

Background to Parish Plans

Parish Plans grew out of Village Appraisals, which gave a snapshot of some areas of community life. They look at many more areas of interest and importance, and result in an action plan addressing the information gathered and needs identified.

The Government’s Rural White Paper ‘Our countryside, the future’ (2000) proposed that all rural communities should develop ‘Town, Village and Parish Plans’ to identify key facilities and services, to set out the problems that need to be tackled and to demonstrate how distinctive characters and features could be preserved.

Key principles

So there are no set rules for how to produce a Parish Plan or how it should be presented. It is up to you to decide what is important, agree priorities for action and present the plan in a way that is interesting, attractive and easy to understand. The key principles are to:

• Encourage the whole community to get involved;
• Give everyone a chance to offer their views and ideas;
• Know that everyone has the right to their own opinion;
• Produce an action plan proposing future projects and developments which benefit the parish.

Why do a Parish Plan?

It can create a greater sense of community, encouraging people to focus on the area’s strengths and the positive action they propose to take.

Producing the plan gives people a chance to chair groups or be part of them, carry out research, and plan action to benefit the community.

Projects coming from the action plan may be big or small, low cost or easy to do, or be much larger scale, more time consuming and costly. When applying for funding to undertake projects a Parish Plan provides evidence of community consultation, needs and previous successful community action.

In addition it is acknowledged that a Parish Plan can be an effective way of communicating the views and needs of the community, and has the potential to influence policies, decisions and actions of local authorities including Planning, the Local Strategic Partnership, Education, Social Services and Highways departments.

Wider implications of a Parish Plan

Community Strategy

Many parishes have issues which are reflected in the Community Strategy produced by our Local Strategic Partnership, the South Norfolk Alliance. The South Norfolk Alliance works to address these issues, and Parish Plans are an important tool in informing the work of the Alliance.

Local Development Framework

The Local Development Framework (LDF) is now being formed as the next version of the current Local Plan (which covers the period up to 2006). The LDF provides planning policy guidance for sustainable development in South Norfolk.

Parish Plans will be welcomed as an additional source of information about local character and needs, and can be designed to provide supplementary planning guidance for specific parishes; this is not part of the LDF but is an important factor that carries weight in the consideration of planning applications.

Funding for Parish Plans

Support in applying for funding can be provided by us, and by the Norfolk Rural Community Council.

We offer awards to communities working on Parish Plans. Where your parish has gained other funding, we will also provide a £500 base amount plus 20p per person in the parish.

For example, for a village with a population of 1000, a maximum award of £700 would be available. Funding from other grants should be of equal or greater value than the award we provide.

For more details, and to download the application form, see our Parish Plan Award page.

Costs involved with Parish Plans

There are various costs associated with producing a Parish Plan, some of these will depend on the specifics of a particular plan. However other costs likely to be incurred by most groups could be:

• Meeting room hire and holding public meetings;
• Stationery / photocopying;
• Research costs;
• Printing and circulating questionnaires;
• Printing and distributing the finished Parish Plan.

The main ‘in-kind’ cost that will probably be generated, and can be considered for funding applications, is volunteer time.

Parish Plans & parish councils

Parish Plans are linked with parish councils, who have the capacity to manage the funding received to produce a Parish Plan, and provide support that may be useful for the Plan and future developments.

Practical support, contributions of funding and in-kind funding (e.g. use of village hall or clerk’s time) may be supplied from the parish council.

Parish Plan Action Plans and the future

As a result of community consultations an action plan should be developed to detail future activity to address issues raised by the community. A well structured action plan could identify:

• Actions required and details of action to be taken;
• Priorities timescales;
• Who will be involved including partner organisations;
• Lead responsibility for organising the action;
• Resources / funding required;
• Additional comments or information.

Outcomes from Parish Plans

Outcomes of a Parish Plan action plan will depend on the initial issues identified by local people and the solutions proposed. Examples of projects or local improvements which could be the outcome of a Parish Plan are:

• Increased volunteering in the Parish to support existing or new groups;
• Development of community space to provide a pleasant area, sports facilities or playground;
• Input into the local planning process via supplementary planning guidance;
• Creation or expansion of a local community transport scheme;
• Improvement of village or community hall;
• Work on the local environment (e.g. litter pick);
• Implementation of traffic calming, zebra crossing or extra parking;
• Establish new social groups requested e.g. rambling, parent and toddler;
• Organisation of social enterprise (e.g. food co-op);
• Increased social activities for whole community including younger and older people;
• Improved parish communications (e.g. newsletter, website);
• Introduction of community events, celebrations and festivals;
• Development of local history and heritage (e.g. village book, heritage trail, local history group);
• Continuation of existing groups for topics of local interest.

How we can help

We can provide support, advice and guidance on the development and funding of projects resulting from an action plan. Get in touch with us now, our contact details are at the foot of this page.

Parish Plan Toolkit

We are developing a toolkit of ideas, advice and useful resources for groups working on a Parish Plan, which will be available by mid-2009. In the meantime please contact us for help and support with your Parish Plan.

Related pages on this website

• Parish Plan Award
• GrantNet: sources of funding for community projects
• Local Development Framework (LDF)
• Community Strategy

External links

Norfolk Rural Community Council
Provides information about support and funding available to rural communities across Norfolk.

Funder Finder
This website offers two free resources: “Apply Yourself” and “Budget Yourself”,  that can be helpful for groups developing projects and preparing funding applications.

Norfolk County Council
Statistics and Census 2001 results for Norfolk wards and parishes can be located on this site.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government’s Rural White Paper ‘Our countryside, the future’ (2000), which set out proposals for Parish Plans, can be located in the Wildlife & Countryside section.

About links to other websites.