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You may have wondered whether the Parish Plan
is still on track for publication this year and I am pleased to
say that it is. During the winter months, the steering committee
has regularly met in order to make some sense of the information
gathered from the questionnaire [you do remember those endless
questions last summer?!]and put it in a readable and understandable
format.
However, the really big task is the Action Plan,
which has to be formulated as a result of this information, highlighting
the wishes and needs of the community. Contrary to what some may
think, this is not intended to be a document which gathers dust
in the archives, but a useable and authoritative plan for the future.
It must reflect what we want for our community and explain how
we intend to go about achieving those goals both in the long and
short term.
" Can this be true? " I hear you say,
but Parish Plans now play an important part informing all tiers
of government from the Parish Council to Central Government about
the wishes of the local community. The most important change has
been the creation of the Local Strategic Partnerships known as
LSP's. Within these organisations the Parish Plan is clearly identified
as the means for local people to indicate how they wish their community
to develop. As a result the LSP board, along with District and
County Councils have acknowledged the important role of the Parish
Plan and how it can help shape the local strategy. This greatly
increases the prospects of implementing many of the issues identified
in the Action Plan [the end result of the Parish Plan process.]
The next step in the formation of our Action Plan
is to have a get together at the village hall on the evening of
the Open Parish Council Meeting on 6th April. It will be an opportunity
to remind yourselves of the 'good, the bad, and the ugly' [and
that's no reflection on the Parish Council!] through the displays
that will be there, and for you to put down in writing some ideas
for the Action Plan. Although we have already had a lot of feedback
from individual comments in the questionnaire about housing and
parking in particular, we want to make sure that we haven't missed
anything.
We hope you will be able to get there, but if not,
and you wish to put forward some ideas/thoughts, please get in
touch with anyone from the Steering Committee as soon as possible.
Which brings me nicely on to the opportunity to say 'thank you'
to all the members listed below who have cheerfully given up their
time and energy for many months to keep the Parish Plan alive.
In a long-term project like this, it isn't always easy to keep
momentum going but everyone has been positive and good humoured
in the face of some dry and difficult analysis. Now comes the interesting
bit - the action!
Hope to see you there on the 6th April at 7.30 p.m.
Sue Jarvis, Chairperson, Great and Little
Gidding Steering Committee Tel: 293271 email: jartrap@aol.com March
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