PUBLIC MEETING Thursday 11 November at 19.30 Maiden Newton Village Hall

A Parish Plan for Maiden Newton?

Parish Plans are produced by the Community and are used by the County and District Councils in deciding priorities.
What do you want for our community's future ?
To try to keep what we have now?
To lose existing facilities?

Working Groups are being set up to investigate:

Village Design, Housing, Roads and Pavements
Environmental Issues and Footpaths
Services including Transport, Employment, Community Facilities
Sports and Leisure

It is the future of our village that we are discussing

Everyone is welcome to contribute. Do come along.

Latest news on the Parish Plan 27/07/04:

At the meeting on the 15 July the Parish Council discussed the Parish Plan. The grant towards the cost of the project is less than had been hoped for - with the probability that any shortfall would have to be met by the Parish Council.This was seen to be fatal to the Councils support. It was agreed that rather than abandon the project altogether the village should go it alone and produce its own Plan from local resources and talent and not use the services of the various professional organisations which would have absorbed much of the grant money. The money already allocated in the Parish Council’s budget for the Plan would, it was thought, be sufficient to cover any expenses.

See Sally Falkingham’s notes on the meeting.

A meeting was held in MN Village Hall on Monday 5 July 2004 about the possibility of a Plan for Maiden Newton. Andy Elliot introduced the speaker from Dorset Community Action, Mr. Simon Thompson. 26 members of the public were present.

Mr. Thompson explained that a Parish Plan is a way of discovering the needs of a parish and of identifying actions neccesary to meet them. The Plan, when complete, is sent to all the relevant authorities - County and District Council, Health Authority, Police, voluntary organisations etc. - and is used by them as a reference when allocating resources and services.

Parish plans can address may areas and Mr. Thompson gave a couple of examples:
In Cerne Abbas the simple matter of inconvenient surgery hours was identified and, as a result, changed.
In Milton Abbas a need for facilities for young people was found and a grant for £60,000 for a sports hall was forthcoming.

He pointed out that not every need or desire would be satisfied but that many of them, once identified, remained in the “pipeline” and eventually dealt with. The most important point seemed to be that if a parish has a plan it is much more likely to get funding for its projects than a parish without one.

The proposed plan will be discussed at next weeks MN Parish Council meeting and a decision made as to whether or not the Council wishes to support the idea and apply for the neccesary funding. The next step is to create a steering group and to recruit people to help. There will be a household survey, posters, leaflets, discussions with local groups and exhibitions.