How you can have a say about a better future for your area

Getting involved in your area's Sustainable Community Strategy

Getting involved in the planning system

Getting involved in Parish Plans

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Did you know that your community group can help shape a better future for your area? There are many opportunities to get involved in local decisions about the area where you live. By working together, you can have a stronger voice and have a positive influence on local matters. Well informed community groups can help ensure that the decisions made will put your area on a pathway to a better future and one which safeguards the environment for future generations. This page provides information on how you can get involved:

A Sustainable Community Strategy is a plan for your whole area drawn up by a partnership which brings together many of your local public, private and voluntary organisations. These organisations provide many of the public services to your community like health care, the police, schools and education, environmental services and leisure facilities. Local businesses and community organisations are also involved.

The Sustainable Community Strategy sets out a vision for the future of your area along with the priorities for action which will make this vision a reality. Communities play a very important part in helping to develop this plan. To find out about your own area's Strategy and how you can get involved contact your local council or visit their website. You can find out who your local council is by using the web site link below.

A-Z of Local councils

The local planning system decides what buildings and facilities are needed for the future of your area and where these should go. It helps plan for more community facilities like schools, parks, hospitals and homes to meet the growing needs of your area. It is also able to make sure that enough of these facilities are provided and that they are built in a way that protects the environment. For example, by encouraging builders to use environmentally friendly materials and to minimise the need to use the car.

The local planning authority, usually your district or city council, is responsible for the local planning system. Local planning authorities must prepare a plan for the whole area which sets out the buildings and facilities needed and where they will go. Communities can have a say in what this whole plan says. Communities can also can have a say in more local decisions about what happens in your street or neighbourhood.

Follow the weblinks below to find out more about the planning system and how you can get involved.

Many rural communities have already worked together in their area to prepare a Parish plan. This plan sets out the good things about the area and also the things which need to change or to be improved. It covers all sorts of social, economic and environmental issues. The plan is usually put together by a small team of volunteers who carry out a survey of village residents to find out what people think should go in the plan.

Parish plans provide a great opportunity to work together in your village and with local service providers to secure a better future which safeguards the environment for future generations. They are also important because a number of local service providers can use the finished Parish Plans to help them when they decide what services are needed in the area and what funding they might need.

You can find more information about how to get involved in a Parish Plan by clicking on the following link.

Guidance on Parish Plans

Photograph taken by the Countryside Agency

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Updated: 13 January 2006