Although Community Led Plans are very much led by members of the community, the volunteers that drive forward the process cannot work alone. Parish and town councils, Rural Community Action Network (RCAN) members and local authorities all have a role to play in supporting the development of plans so that they:
- achieve high rates of participation;
- are linked in with broader strategies for the area, and;
- result in well researched projects that can be implemented to meet local needs
Parish and town councils
Parish and town (local) councils are the first tier of local government. There are around 10,000 local councils in England and Wales, made up of nearly 100,000 councillors. They deliver a range of services at a community level and their role is to represent the local community, provide services to meet local needs and improve quality of life and community well being.
Volunteers that lead on the development of a Community Led Plan are strongly advised to work in partnership with their parish or town council, involving councillors in the decision making process.This relationship proves very useful, providing the community with a useful ally that can help to raise the profile of their plan and support it along the way.In particular, parish and town councils can use the final plan as the basis for future work in the community, resourcing particular projects where needed from the local precept.
If communities fail to work with their parish or town council, conflicts and tensions within the community are likely to emerge making the delivery of projects difficult to achieve.
RCAN members
RCAN members are charitable local development agencies, generally based at county level, which support and enable initiatives in rural communities.
RCAN members have supported Community Led Plans since they were first pioneered in rural areas in the late 1970s. Employing specialist practitioners, they use ACRE’s CLP toolkit to facilitate the process, engaging with volunteers as appropriate to make sure that they are equipped with the very best techniques for catalysing local activity and securing the support of other key stakeholders along the way.
The hands-on support provided by RCAN practitioners is essential for ensuring that volunteers continue to produce high-quality Community Led Plans that derive benefit for both the communities involved and the local authorities that wish to make use of them.
Local authorities and other service providers
Local authorities are already obliged to work with communities, to involve them in local decision making. Under the new government’s policies, local authorities will also be expected to play an important role in creating the ‘Big Society’.
Local authorities can achieve these aims by working with RCAN members to support CLP. Whilst this may not involve directly facilitating the process, local authorities can help to create a supportive infrastructure for CLP by developing protocols and procedures for responding to the development of plans. There are many ways that this can be done from providing communities with contact details of officers that are able to offer advice on specific issues, to supporting the implementation of projects.
ACRE recently worked with Action for Market Towns (AMT) on a project that looked at how local authorities can make the most of CLP, drawing on best practice nationally. To find out more about this project, please click here.
