Kettlestone and Pensthorpe Parish Plan

Our Parish has recently completed its Parish Plan. The process took more than two years and involved nearly everyone in the Paish. The work was coordinated by the Parish Plan Steerng Goup The plan is important because it will help to guide what happens in Kettlestone and Pensthorpe in the future. You will shortly be able to download a pdf of the Parish Plan.

What is a Parish Plan?

In 2000, the Government's Rural White Paper, Our Countryside, the Future, proposed that rural communities should develop local plans to:

identify key facilities and services
set out th problems that need to be tackled
demonstrate how distinctive character and features could be preserved.

The purpose of a Parish Plan is to inform the actions of the Parish Council in accordance with the wishes of the parishioners and it can cover areas like:

local development
guidelnes for the preservation of local character and deign
crime and policing
transport isses
the deveopment of hte rural economy
communty issues
conservation and environment
anythig else that parishioners felt strongly about.

How did we go about making our Parish Plan?

The process started with a well-attended public meeting on 8th May 2006 which led to the formation of the Parish Plan Steering Committee (PPSC). The PPSC was supported by the Parish Council, but it was independent of it.

Over the two years the work of the PPSC has included:

numerous meetings
consultating with Parishioners to find out what areas they wanted to be included in the final survey
consulting with Parishioners and local businesses to find out what actions they wanted in the Parish Plan
delivering and collecting the two surveys
entering data and analysing the the two surveys
a poetry competition
a photography competition
a coffee morning and other public events
writing an action plan and ratifying it with the Parish Council
writing numerous drafts of the Parish Plan
designing the Parish Plan
launching the Parish Plan

The Plan was finally launched in the Village Hall on Saturday 1st November 2008. The event, which was well attended, included a finger buffet, music, a free prize draw, and three short speeches. One copy of the Plan was given to each household.