Information on the parish plan.
In the Autumn of 2004, the Parish Council decided that, as part of an initiative led by the government through the Countryside Agency to enable local communities to take more control of their own lives, Upton should produce a Parish Plan. The document was seen as a better way forward in which the Council could make decisions based on what the village wanted to see in their own neighbourhood and to then have stronger backing to interact with other agencies to get changes made.
A Parish Plan is a statement drawn up and owned by the local community which sets out what the community values and how the residents wish the parish to develop. The Plan, once produced, will be used to influence and steer the village’s future. A main aspect of the plan is that it should represent the views of as wide a selection of the residents as possible. A key component of the Parish Plan is an Action Plan which identifies actions which are within the remit of the Parish and can reasonably be carried out.
Our Parish plan was initiated by the Parish Council on 29th November 2003 at an open meeting attended by about 30 residents where David Fisher from the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council (ORCC) presented the case for producing a Plan. A unanimous show of hands supported the idea and a Steering Committee consisting of eight residents and two Parish council members was formed. This committee obtained funding from the Countryside Agency, ORCC and the Upton Parish Council to take the idea forward and produce the Plan.
In order to start the process, a preliminary, short questionnaire was sent to each household in February 2004 asking the residents to identify what they liked and disliked about Upton and to suggest improvements. It also invited residents to offer their services to help. 119 replies were received (a response of 68% from the 168 households), which clearly showed that there was much interest in the village for a Plan. The results were reported back to the residents through a summary published in the Upton News.
Five Working Groups were then set up to consider aspects relating to Environment and Planning, Transport and Roads, Social and Welfare, Facilities and Youth. Their objectives were to look at the ideas from the first questionnaire and together with their own initiative make suggestions as to what might be done and how it could be costed.
As these groups started work, it became clear that it would be necessary to return to the residents with a second questionnaire to ask their views on specific questions before an Action plan could be proposed. A draft of the second questionnaire was made available for consultation at the Village Fete and was finally sent out, this time to every resident, in December 2004. A separate questionnaire was sent to those aged between 9 and 17 years. 204 replies were received from the adults and 29 from the youth of the village. These replies were collated, audited to confirm accuracy and presented to the village at an Open Meeting held on 23 February 2005. The full results of the questionnaire are available on this website.
The final plan is currently being drafted by the Steering Group and is based upon the results and views expressed in both questionnaires and comments made by residents at the public meetings. As such it expresses the views of as many of the residents as possible.
There have already been some successful results from the planning exercise:
- Residents were invited to express interest in helping to set up or participate in various clubs. It was immediately obvious that there was demand for such activities as keep fit, wine tasting, travel and jig saws. Without waiting for the plan to be produced lists of names have been sent to potential organisers and arrangements made for them to book the Village Hall without charge for inaugural meetings so that they can get together to set up these new clubs.
- Many residents indicated that they would be willing to help out in practical ways around the village, for example, for litter picking or maintenance such as fencing. These names have been given to the Parish Council who have already been able to form working parties to clear, seed and fence the Churchyard extension, to tidy up the children’s play area, to refurbish the Bus Shelter and to organise a mammoth litter picking weekend.
Parish Plans documents can be found here.