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| Community Planning
Guide |
New Forest District Council has published an innovative
newguide which will help local communities improve their towns
and villages.
The guide advises town and parish councils on how to initiate
parish plans and market town health checks.
Parish plans involve parishes consulting with the local community
about what the area has to offer, what needs improving, what
the parish priorities are, and what action plans are needed,
while market town health checks involve an in-depth analysis
of local needs and priorities in towns.
The council’s guide also breaks new ground by explaining
how parish and town plans can influence the wider picture.
In the New Forest, local parish and town plans are fed directly
into other plans, such as the New Forest Community Strategy produced
by the Changing Lives Local Strategic Partnership and the Local
Development Framework, which outlines planning and development
priorities.
There will also be implications for the National Park Management
Plan to be produced by the National Park Authority.
“It sounds like a lot of bureaucracy, but local community
plans in fact deal with issues that people feel very strongly
about,” said Cllr Jeremy Heron, portfolio holder for Economy
and Planning.
“If people want more street lighting, more benches to sit on, or a refurbished
community centre, they can make their views known through town and parish councils,
who take these issues into account in their future planning.
If they are worried about elderly people being isolated or young
people being bored, they can feed these concerns into a much
wider arena through the community planning process.
Community plans make sure that any change that takes place is
change that local people want, or that will benefit the community
as a whole. Community planning can also help people to
generate community spirit and to forge closer links with partner
agencies.”
The guide explains how the community planning process works,
the benefits, how to produce a plan, and has other useful resources
such as advice on consultation and grants forms.
The guide is available to download on the NFDC website at www.newforest.gov.uk and
will also be distributed to all parish and town councils, council
members, LSP members and others. To find out more contact
Community Planning Officer Penny Velander on 023 8028 5342. |
