Meldreth Parish Council-Parish Plan Implementation Team

The PPIT wound up its business at the end of March 2007 and submitted a Final Report to the Parish Council. The report deals with Achieved issues and those still outstanding and tries to put all the documentation covering its achieved tasks in one document.

Some outstanding issues will take a lot more work over some time; a classic example is a new pavilion which will only happen if enough of the residents want it and are prepared to work for it. The Parish Council will continue to work on other issues - none of which have silver bullets to resolve instantly.

The Parish Plan was published in June 2005 and the Parish Plan Implementation Team with 6 members was formed to carry out the plan. The Team consisted of 3 councillors and 3 village residents.

So, for 16 months this small team has laboured on the 35 actions identified from the questionnaire which villagers were invited to complete.

The big challenge for the team is to try and meet at least some of the aspirations of Meldreth residents and it would be a miracle indeed had we been able to achieve that.

Many of the things villagers wanted were issues pretty common to all rural communities in our area. Issues around traffic, crime and anti-social behaviour, public transport and the environment affect us all and all these were raised by residents in one form or another.

Some actions however, were particular to the village; communications, a better pavilion and a user friendly pub were among these.

The PPIT has tried to tackle all these and our progress has been regularly reported to the Parish Council and promulgated through consultations last year and via the council’s website.

A lot of effort has gone into lobbying local authorities, public service providers and commercial concerns to improve their services or their impact on our village environment. Some of this is still going on and not all outcomes are yet clear.

So what, you may ask, has the whole plan process achieved?

Through the Plan Report issued in 2005 local authorities and public service providers know what the village wants,
The Report gives a succinct picture of the village needs and issues which residents have themselves set out,
The village is ‘on the map’ as a result of the Plan and residents and the Parish Council have a reference point when they need to prioritise and compete for ever limited resources,
But perhaps the most significant aspect has been how the plan process has stimulated more involvement and networking by villagers to help improve matters. There are good examples of this: river restoration, Parish paths Partnership, Pavement Wardens, and volunteer drivers to mention a few examples.

Our full report is downloadable in .pdf format. Please note only Appendices A & B of the report are available from this site. The other items, Appendix C to I cover mostly local matters which are changeable. However, they can be obtained by request to the Meldreth Parish Council Clerk who will be able to provide updated information.

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Download the PPIT Final Report to Meldreth Parish Council

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For information and updating, e-mail the Parish Clerk.

Artwork on our webpages by courtesy of Ann Barnes & Don Finlay, local artists in Meldreth.