Our Parish Plan - Overview Our Parish Plan - Overview
The Government wishes to give rural communities a bigger opportunity to run their own affairs, and to set out a vision for their town or village to guide future development. We in Cholsey are seizing this opportunity for all to be heard - even those who don’t usually speak up for themselves ...
... – and the Parish Council and Cholsey 1000 Plus fully support this initiative. The Plan of our neighbours Brightwell-cum-Sotwell directly affected SODC policy – why should we miss out through lack of effort when local Plans ARE listened to? We can’t necessarily stop change – but we can try to make sure it happens in the way we want it to. At the same time, we must identify what we already have that we like, so that we can protect it.
Last September, an open meeting at the School voted to draw up a Parish Plan, broadly covering community/leisure, the economy, the environment, health, housing needs, transport and youth/education. Sub-groups for each of these areas have reported to the Steering Group on what we already have, as well as highlighting some of the more obvious issues. From mid-February until April, a cross-section of people across the Parish are being asked for their thoughts on current issues, as well as their ideas and hopes for the future. We are using one-to-one interviews in Winterbrook and the main village, a drop-in event on the 8th and 9th of April, and a stall on May Day. There is active involvement from the Pre-School, the Primary School, senior pupils from Cholsey at Wallingford School, the Day Centre and other organisations within the village. The results of all this activity will be distilled into the production of a questionnaire to be delivered to all addresses in the Parish, in the summer.
The questionnaire will be your opportunity to let us know what you think about the way the Parish should go, but WE PREFER TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS AND IDEAS NOW, so that everyone can hear them and comment on them! Please see Contacts. This is true whether you live in the main village, or in Winterbrook, Hithercroft, Lollingdon or Westfield.
The results of the questionnaire and the Sub-groups’ reports will go to produce our Action Plan for the next five, ten or even fifteen years. This will give our Parish Council extra credibility to lobby SODC on behalf of our Community. As a Parish, let’s ensure this Plan brings the interests of groups and individuals in the whole Community together!