Parish Plan Overview

Written by Administrator Thursday, 21 July 2011 19:04

This section is all about the Clanfield Parish Plan. it is here to inform what the plan is, why it has been created and where it is going. Please use this site as a reference when seeking onformation regarding the plan - it will be maintained by the Parish Council's steering group.

The world is a changing place. Here in Clanfield, we live in a semi-rural community. it is bounded on three sides by countryside, and by another Parish to the south. It's easy to thing that it has always been this way, and will always stay this way.

However, one of the few certainties of life is that things will change. The size, shape and content of Clanfield is no different from anything else. Pressures for change will come from within and from without: but they will be there. Think back jut five years: while the "look and feel" of the village is the same, a number of details are different.

The village can change in many ways. Some of these changes may be perceived as good; some may be perceived as less beneficial. So what can we, as residents, do to give our input into the forces of change? One route is to have a Parish plan.

One of the more emotive forces for change is planning. Central government is demanding that more housing be built in East Hampshire District Council’s  (EHDC) southern parishes (Clanfield, Horndean, Rowlands Castle & Finchdean). Over the next 20 years 1250 new homes are targeted for development in these parishes, 275 of which are targeted for the Green Lane site in Clanfield. New housing development has the opportunity to impact upon the environment and a range of local services – in both a positive and negative way.

EHDC is producing a community strategy and a core strategy to guide how its district will develop. These documents will set out development plans for the next 20 years and will, where possible, include local plans and requests. We, the residents of clanfield, can influence those documents by presenting our view of what should happen to the Parish. The recognised route to do that is through a Parish Plan. It is generally accepted that the production of a Parish Plan is an important first step in recording and making known the views of a local community for incorporation into mainstream initiatives.

A Parish Plan is a document setting out how we, the residents, want to see the area develop over the next few years. It can cover a range of issues, and gives us a recognised voice. Communities of any size can produce a Parish Plan - to date around 3,000 have been published. The Parish Plan documents the socio-economic and environmental issues of a community and its proposed remedies and actions.

Parish plans are evolving documents, outlining how a community would like to develop over the next 10 years. It will include a vision for the future, an expressionof the residents' views and an action plan detailing how these developments can be achieved. It will outline how the parishioners, the Parish Council, Government (at all levels) and local service providers can act to deliver the plan addressing the residents' wishes. Well researched and structured parish plans with actions highlighting how the parish priorities fit with wider government priorities (including housing needs), are more effective at engaging their mainstream providers (local authorities) than those focused purely on a local audience.