Parish Action Plan - September 2025

East Keal Parish Council Action Plan – September 2025

This Action Plan has been created to direct the actions of the Council until the next round of parish elections in May 2027.

This is a statement of the Parish Council’s vision for the parish, its purpose, values, objectives and key priorities. It is not intended to be a traditional ‘Parish Plan’ which sets out aims and ambitions that are delivered by the community and partners as a whole

It is a document that sets out what East Keal Parish Council itself can achieve, either directly or by trying to increase its influence on the relevant delivery body, such as East Lyndsey District Council or Lincolnshire County Council.

The Council's vision is “to promote and support our community as a vibrant village”.

An interim report from this action plan will be issued every six months after initial release in September  2025.  This plan will be reviewed annually; next annual review is due September 2026.

Vision

Our vision for East Keal is to:

• Retain and strengthen our unique village atmosphere - characterised by the distinct identity provided by East Keal’s historic rural setting, its heritage and visual character.

• Do our best to ensure that developments are small-scale and do not encroach on surrounding countryside.

• Retain and improve our cultural and community facilities to provide a stimulating social and educational environment for all

• Improve residents’ ability to move about the village safely and maintain and improve links between East Keal and its surrounding areas

• Ensure that residents of all ages and abilities can be accommodated within the village wherever practical

Mission 

We want all residents to enjoy and feel proud of living in East Keal. The Parish Council seeks to continually improve the quality of life of those who live in East Keal by improving and developing the environment, promoting an inclusive community and enhancing community facilities, whilst protecting the historic elements of the area. We want everyone to feel part of the community and able to participate in making East Keal a place we are all proud to live.

To deliver our priorities the Parish Council needs to be creative and innovative, demonstrating strong, dynamic and successful leadership through:

• Knowledge and understanding – by focusing on key goals and pursuing improvement through self-review, ongoing training for councillors and the clerk, with clear actions for all involved

• Improved Resource Management – using our resources effectively to make a real difference in our community. We must regularly challenge whether we are using our resources to the best effect, and if not, change the way we are working

 • Involvement and Advocacy – we recognise that people are the most valuable resource for the Parish Council. Our priority is to ensure we have the skills and capability to deliver our priorities, both within the Parish Council and within the wider community

Strategy

Our strategy aims to support improvement in the quality of life for all our residents so that we achieve our target of making East Keal a place we are all proud to live. The various ways that we will do that are set out below:

 Events:  We will seek to organize, support and promote events in and around the village including seasonal and one-off events such as:

• National celebrations

• Local village events

• Seasonal events e.g. Christmas lights switch-on

Assets

We will work to protect and support assets of community value including:

• community places in the village including the Memorial and the Village Green

• public transport Relationships We will continue to promote closer working relationships between organisations that have an impact on the locality, and will encourage consultation and communication with and between:

• Lincolnshire County Council

• other external agencies

• local voluntary and sporting organisations

• faith groups

• public transport providers

Safety

We will continue to work to maintain and promote safety within East Keal by:

• inviting the Police to attend events in the parish and to provide reports on local crime levels

• sharing appropriate information with the wider community, and alerting residents to potential risks, including scams and frauds, though our website and noticeboards.

• carrying out regular inspections of our street furniture and signage and ensuring that items are safe and properly maintained

• reporting issues with roads and footways to the relevant authorities and following up on requests as necessary

• lobbying the District and  County Council and other agencies to act on requests for traffic management, parking and other safety measures identified by the Parish Council or reported to them by residents e.g. traffic calming and speed limits in the village.

• Protecting and promoting the proper use of public footpaths and rights of way

Visual Amenity

We will protect and seek to improve the visual amenity of the village by:

• engaging contractors and support volunteers in maintaining flower beds, hanging baskets, green spaces and grass verges

• keeping street furniture in good order

 • supporting the work of litter pickers

• seeking to protect the footpaths that run through East Keal

• commenting on local planning applications as appropriate

• making every effort to protect trees and green spaces

• providing benches at key points in the village

Climate Crisis

We recognise the responsibility of the Parish Council to address Climate issues and will:

• undertake regular tree audits

• continue to seek to identify appropriate locations for new trees to be planted

• support the provision of an electric vehicle charging point in the village

• pursue opportunities to reduce the parish council’s carbon footprint through better use of resources and more efficient ways of working