The Parish Plan

Parish Plans are a Government-supported initiative which gives people living in villages a way of deciding for themselves how they would like their village to develop.

Medstead is a very community-spirited Parish and had already put together its own Village Appraisal and Village Design Statement.

Following on from this, a group of volunteers undertook the task of preparing a Parish Plan. This involved consultation with every person in Medstead to find out what we wanted for our Parish over the next ten years.

The resulting Parish Plan provides a detailed description of the desires of the people of Medstead. However, is not simply a wish list. It also contains a detailed, prioritised action plan, stating what is to be done, by when and by whom, with examples of funding sources available to achieve these desires.

However, a plan by itself produces no consequences. Implementation of the plan requires individuals to put effort into making things happen.

The Parish Plan was also provided as an input to East Hampshire Community Partnership's Community Strategy 2008-2026 which guides joint work by councils, police, health services and voluntary agencies, and also into East Hampshire District Council's Local Development Framework (LDF), which replaces the Local Plan as the key planning document for the district, setting out how land should be used to meet community needs between now and 2026.

Timeline

Development of Medstead's Parish Plan was an eighteen month journey. Key milestones along the way included:

• The Medstead Parish Plan Committee (MPPC) was formed in January 2007 by Medstead Parish Council.
• Presentations to, and consultations with, local groups and associations were held between May and June 2007.
• To establish the key issues and provide a focus for the development of main questionnaire a Love It / Hate It survey was distributed and the results assessed, between May and September, 2007.
• The Parish Plan questionnaire was distributed to all residents of Medstead Parish during October 2007.
• The questionnaires were collected, analysed and the key issues established between November 2007 and January 2008.
• A draft Parish Plan was then developed and a presentation given to the Annual Village Meeting, open to all Parish residents, in April 2008.
• The Parish Plan was updated with comments received at the Annual Village Meeting, before being adopted by Medstead Parish Council, subject to minor amendments, in May 2008.
• The final version of the Parish Plan was published and distributed to all residents of Medstead Parish in July 2008.

You can download the Parish Plan here.