Parish Plans – Withyham Parish Council
Withyham Parish Council creates a Parish Plan every 4 years. This document – the Parish Plan – then guides how the Council allocates time, priorities and resources. The Plan is put together through a facilitated workshop for all Councillors and the Office Team, and all outcomes are shared with every resident of the Parish in a consultation. The results of this are weaved together to become the next 4 years’ Parish Plan.
The WPC Parish Plan: 2024 – 2028
The latest Withyham Parish Council Parish Plan runs from 2024-2028. It states that:
“Environmental Sustainability is a key focus and thread that runs through all our work. The Council will continue to prioritise adaptation, mitigation and resilience to climate change and its impacts within our Parish. This is with existing projects as well as new initiatives, such as conservation of wildlife habitats, and reducing the carbon emissions of the Parish Council and Parish. Sharing resources, and finding ways that residents can participate, and partner with as well as supporting local groups focusing on environmental sustainability within their commitments, projects and and actions are also important.”
The plan weaves environmental, climate and ecological considerations throughout every section of the Parish Plan – highlighting how fundamental this is to everything we do.
You can find actions for consideration by CEAG under each heading; Supporting A Stronger Community, Health and Wellbeing, Housing and Planning, The Council, Highways and Transport and The Diversity of Our Parish Residents and Geographical Areas.
To see what we – the Climate and Ecology Advisory Group and Withyham Parish Council – have discussed and actioned from the 2024-2028 Parish Plan around Climate and Ecology check out the Climate and Ecology Advisory Group’s Agendas, Supporting Documents and Minutes, Changing Our Methods and the Climate and Ecology Advisory Group.
Previous Parish Plans: 2020-2024
The 2020-2024 Parish Plan had 4 Golden Threads.
These are key focuses for the Council which run through all 10 sections of the Parish Plan.
The 4 Golden Threads are:
- Supporting climate protection initiatives.
- Building resilience in terms of promoting community self-help.
- Continuing to listen to and respond to community needs.
- Effectively promoting the work of WPC throughout the parish.
Section 2 – The Environment
The 2nd Section of the 2020-2024 Parish Plan is dedicated to The Environment.
The Environment section is about:
“Ensuring that reducing environmental impact is paramount in effecting the decisions we make as a council; and encouraging residents to take action to protect the environment”.
One of the key actions from this section of the Parish Plan was to set up a Climate & Ecological Advisory Group.
This group will look at the actions from the Parish Plan in combination with the results for the Parish from carbon calculating tools, to see what next steps can be recommended to Council.
The Climate & Ecology Advisory Group held it’s first meeting on 20th June 2023, and it was an inspiring first meeting!
The group is made up of both Councillors and residents, and we have a few spots left – so if you’d like to be part of the group or find out a bit more about what’s happening contact: stephanie@withyhamparishcouncil.gov.uk / 01892 864 557.
You can find out more about the Climate and Ecology Advisory Group and what it has been up to on the Climate and Ecology Advisory Group section of our website.
You can also check out the Agendas and Minutes of the Climate and Ecology Advisory Group .
