Background to the Parish Plan
The original idea behind a Parish Plan for Longparish emerged from the work done to produce our Village Design Statement (VDS). Discussions within the community then ranged far beyond design - people wanted to talk about the future development of the village. There was a recognition that, unless we did something active to plan for the future of Longparish, we might drift into a situation that nobody really wants - perhaps losing our treasured facilities and amenities or becoming a village full of chocolate box weekend cottages.
Parish Plans are a Government-supported initiative (through the Countryside Agency's Vital Villages campaign) aiming to give those living in villages a way of deciding for themselves how they would like their village to develop. The Parish Council is kept busy with day-to-day issues and its statutory responsibilities, so doesn't always have time to think about the longer term. The Plan gives the whole community an opportunity to plan for the future.
Developing the Plan has taken a long time. The first exhibition was in December 2002 and a Steering Group was formed shortly afterwards of people who were interested in helping lead the process. We have consulted widely within the village, with exhibitions, discussion groups and a questionnaire. For details of the comprehensive consultation process please see Appendix 1.
We have kept people updated with articles in our Parish magazine and the results of every consultation event are on the website. We estimate that about 500 of the 700 people who live in Longparish have given their views and been involved in the development of the Plan.
The work was funded by the Countryside Agency, Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) and Longparish Parish Council, and everyone involved has given their enthusiasm, time and expertise for free. Longparish Parish Council has endorsed the Plan and will provide some of the funding for the proposals.
