Background to the Parish Plan

In 2003 the Parish Council was becoming increasingly aware of the requirement to understand the needs and aspirations of the residents Copdock and Washbrook.  Government Departments and Local Authoritiesincreasingly asked questions regarding those needs, and it was imperative that if the Parish Council wanted to be part of the LocalAuthority decision making process, we would need to know more about our own Parish based on factual evidence. Therefore the only way forward was to produce a Parish Plan.

The Parish Council facilitated a Public Meeting in October 2003.  This was well attended and under the Leadership of Suffolk ACRE theobjectives of a Parish Plan were Explained together with the methods to be employed inits production.  A Steering Group of 11 volunteersand two Parish Councillors was formed and with funding from theCountryside Agency their work began.

The first consultation was in the form of letters to all businesses,sports and social organisations of the village,asking if they would like any particular questions to be included in a proposed
Questionnaire.  With only one or two exceptions the results of this exercise were disappointing.

Nevertheless, the Steering Group pressed ahead and produced a Questionnaire which was circulated to every household in the villages.  Due to the hard work of the volunteer distributors and collectors, a 66% response of valid returns was achieved.  When judged by national
standards this was a good result and gives the Report credibility when addressing future plans affecting our villages.

The analysis of the answers given in the Questionnaire resulted in an Action Report which was distrubuted to each household in the village.

It is not the remit of the Copdock and Washbrook Parish Plan Steering Group to take action itself, but it can identify the appropriate organisations to undertake those actions that you consider important.To this end an Open Meeting was held in the Village Hall on Friday20th and Saturday 21st May 2005, to allow the villagers to decide which of the proposed options should be pursued and what priority should be given to each proposed action.

THE ACTION PLAN

Click here to view The Action Plan