Parish planning: the planning process

What does the process involve?

This Adobe PDFParish planning - flow diagram 28kb outlines the process of preparing, consulting on and delivering your parish plan.

How far ahead should your plan be looking?

Plans are encouraged to take a broad vision for the future – where the Parish, Ward or Town wants to be in 5 or 10 years time. This perspective enables short term issues to be tackled (such as getting roads swept more regularly), but also enables the community to think about longer term projects which may need preparatory groundwork some years in advance (such as building a new village hall).

How long will it take to prepare a Plan?

On average it takes 12-18 months to research, draft, consult and complete a typical Parish, Ward or Town Plan. Large communities with more complex issues should expect to be at the upper end of that range.

Who should be involved in preparing your plan?

Everyone should be involved, but the process will be led by a steering committee made up of a wide cross-section of the community. The steering group will carry out the detailed planning and co-ordination of the project. The parish or town council’s role will be to support the steering group in that work with a small representative presence on the committee and to have ultimate responsibility for endorsing and adopting the final plan.

In Wards within the city of Salisbury the relevant district council Ward Members would be involved. Their level of involvement would be determined agreed and by both the Ward plan steering group and the district council Ward Members. It is the responsibility of the City Area Committee to adopt and endorse the final plan.

Where can you get support to develop your plan?

Salisbury District Council supports the development of Parish, Ward and Town Plans through:

  • Advice and information to parish councils about Parish Planning;
  • Advice on publicising the project, preparing the project plan, budget, data analysis, consultation design and other aspects;
  • Facilitation of public meetings and events and recruitment of steering group members;
  • Initial and ongoing support and advice to steering groups, including attending some meetings;
  • Funding of £500, allocated on the submission of an approved project plan;
  • Providing groups with a Parish Plan toolkit;
  • Training sessions to support understanding of the process, build capacity of individuals, and provide basic tools and techniques of consultation, research, gaps analysis and action planning;
  • Commenting on draft;s
  • Loan of consultation tools;
  • Examples of questionnaires and completed plans;
  • Contacts for similar projects;
  • Working on your behalf to make sure plans are used.

See also the Adobe PDFParish planning - Step by step guide 40kb outlining the support you can expect from the council at each stage of the process.

What funding is available?

Grants of £500 are available from Salisbury District Council for preparation of the Parish Ward and Town Plans. There is currently an annual limit of ten plans per year, but this will be considered and reviewed regularly.

To access funding from Salisbury District Council, a Project Plan has to be approved by the Principal Community Development Officer. There may be other sources of funding to develop a Parish Plan and local groups will be kept informed if they arise.

There is national support from DEFRA for parish planning, funded and supported through Community First.

Salisbury District Council has an External Funding Officer who can offer further support and guidance on funding.

What is a Project Plan?

A Project Plan lists the steering group's aims and objectives for the Parish Plan, which will result from the Parish Plan Community Launch event.

The plan lays out a timetable of what is going to happen when, and how, and who is going to be responsible for each task. This gives the group a clear idea of the tasks involved and helps them to prioritise the order in which things should be done.

Download a Adobe PDFSample parish plan 19kb

Making the most of your plan - validation

Service delivery organisations such as councils are increasingly aware of the value of Parish, Ward and Town Plans in helping to improve their services and priorities. However, the quality of information provided is variable. This has raised concerns that, on rare occasions, information that is not ‘sound’ could determine the allocation of resources.

We have therefore put in place a voluntary quality assurance mechanism, to guide communities towards preparing the types of Parish, Ward and Town Plans that can have the maximum impact upon service providers. It is a voluntary mechanism because that the process of preparing plans should be organic and community-led, and not overly influenced by the expectations of other bodies.

The validation process:

  • is voluntary, but if you do follow its simple guidelines you can be assured that your plan is likely to be taken more seriously (for example, with Land Use Planning, councils have to clearly demonstrate their case based on solid evidence – validated plans will qualify);
  • will involve more direct discussions with service providers, ensuring expectations and reality are more closely matched;
  • will enable your plan to be better informed though the use of better information and techniques to underpin discussion within the community;
  • will aim to ensure that your action planning stage draws in a wide spectrum of interests to help you deliver;
  • will involve an evaluation process, but the criteria for evaluation will be made clear from the outset, and support from council officers will help you tackle key areas as they arise.

A Adobe PDFParish planning guide and checklist of criteria 90kb will be provided to each group starting out on the process.

Downloads

Contact details:

Telephone:
01722 434568

email:
ascadden@salisbury.gov.uk...

Postal address:
Principal Community Development Officer
Community Initiatives
Salisbury District Council
PO Box 2117
Salisbury
SP2 2DF