What is it?

The Government launched the idea of Parish Plans a few years ago to give local communities more control of their own environment.    The Parish Council has agreed that a Crowland Parish Plan should be produced. This will set out the improvements we would like to make during the next 10 to 15 years and act as a guide to future development.

A Parish Plan gives us an opportunity to say what we want to achieve for our community. Its purpose is to make Crowland a better place to live in the short, medium and long term.  The Plan can include anything that is relevant to the people that live and work here, eg transport, recreation, housing, protection of our rural community etc.

It will identify what people value, as well as problems and opportunities in the Town. It will quantify how residents want the community to develop and will identify actions needed. All this information will then be incorporated into a public document

the Crowland Parish Plan.

Who decides on the contents of the Plan?

There are no rules. The community as a whole decides what is important.  Everyone can comment on the social, economic and environmental issues affecting Crowland and what improvements they would like to see.  It is important that the whole community has some input into the Plan.

What are the advantages? 

The collective views will be brought together in the Plan to identify Crowland’s priorities. In this way the Plan might be used to try and influence the Borough Council and other authorities, for example with regard to any planning applications affecting the Parish.

Having a plan may make it easier to access funds for some of the improvements we might want.  Groups in the Parish will be able to use the Plan to seek funding as many grant-offering bodies require evidence of community consultation to support applications.

The process of preparing the Parish Plan will provide an opportunity to bring the Parish together and may act as a catalyst for action by the authorities or for projects that we can undertake ourselves.

What happens next?

At the beginning of this year the Parish Council appealed to the whole Parish for volunteers to help with the process.  These volunteers and three Parish Councillors have now formed a steering committee, responsible for gathering views and for the production of the Plan.

In the coming months there will be initiatives to identify the issues that are important to the residents of Crowland. This will culminate in the circulation of a questionnaire which will allow everyone to express their views on the issues raised.

How will it be funded?

We applied for a grant to assist with the cost of producing the Parish Plan of which we were successful and we will fund raise for the short fall.  We will also need to harness skills, expertise and knowledge from within the Parish to produce the Plan.