Parish Plan 2024 - 27
Four Year Plan 2024 - 07
This plan is currently undergoing review and will be updated in due course.
1. Introduction
The council covers the parish of East Keal which includes the village of East Keal and surrounding homes, agricultural fields and some woodland.
Located to the south west of Spilsby in Lincolnshire, the parish is approximately two miles wide (east – west) and three miles long (north – south).
The purpose of the plan is to set a direction and to satisfy the aspirations of parishioners by providing a framework for council activities commensurate with financial constraints.
2. Aims and objectives
The plan is to set the aims and objectives from 1st January 2024 until 31st December 2027. These are formulated by a community led approach.
The plan is ongoing and subject to regular review.
We shall work closely with other agencies and community groups to promote and sustain East Keal as an attractive, safe and desirable place to live.
3. Resources
There are seven councillor positions and one employee who is a part time clerk.
Councillors are elected every four years; the closest being in May 2023.
It is possible to co-opt to any vacancy that may arise in the interim.
There is encouragement for relevant ongoing training for both councillors and the clerk. The clerk will continue to have a proper contract of employment.
Finances are received annually from the precept from taxpayers and from a rental of 11.27 acres of farmland, plus any fund raising and grants.
4. Partnerships
We shall work closely with and alongside Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils (LALC); East Lindsey District Council, Lincolnshire County Council, Lincolnshire Community Safety Partnership, residents’ groups and clubs and village volunteers. We will continue to liaise closely with West Keal Parish Council which also covers Keals Cotes, the three villages forming a community identified generally as The Keals’.
We shall be representative and involve all parts of the community.
5. Communications
Our aim is to actively listen and to ensure effective communications between the council and all other interested parties.
6. Evaluation
- There will be an annual appraisal of progress and best practice of the four-year plan.
- We shall hold regular council meetings at least six in each year, every two months and an Annual Residents Meeting
c) Regular financial reports will be provided.
In addition, there will also be a progress and actions report annually by the chair person.
d) All records and policies are available for inspection at any time and publicly displayed.
e) Accounts will be properly prepared and audited including an annual financial report
f) We shall adopt the Local Government Act; Code of Conduct.
Aims and Objectives
- Contact with the council.
All existing methods are useful, so we will continue to use: meetings, email; our website; leaflets through letter boxes; notice boards; phone calls and face-to-face contacts. We shall not engage in social media platforms due to recent experience and misuse by a minority of users. There will be involvement with many social groups and clubs on an ongoing basis and we shall endeavour to hold an annual garden social for meeting the councillors.
2. Transport
- We shall make representations to monitor the bus services.
- We shall provide information on the ‘Call Connect’ system.
3. Security
We will:
a) Encourage contact with our local Police Community Support officer (PCSO) and to have more visibility.
b) Include the PCSO as a speaker at our Annual Residents Meeting.
c) Continue to spread the notifications of Neighbourhood Alert e.g. more people on our email notification list.
4. Social Activities
a) We will encourage the support of a range of activities. This will be done by working closely with the Village Hall Committee and other existing social groups to support a programme of events of involvement and interest. We shall give consideration to new ideas.
We will:
b) Continue to give wide support to existing social groups and any new ones.
c) Encourage and actively support the new special interest groups of Local History, Art and Wildlife.
d) Seek to improve computer skills of local people and use of the mobile library.
5. Environment
a) There will be encouragement to everyone to keep footpaths cleared, branches away from signs and a tidy appearance throughout the parish.
b) Our success at having a reduced speed limit of 30 mph on the A16, will mean we shall continue to monitor its effectiveness. We will evaluate and aim for the possibility of reducing the limit on the smaller residential roads to 20 mph.
c) We will strive to consider all possibilities on systems and methods that would reduce traffic speed; including a speed camera or a flashing sign.
d) We shall endeavour to enhance our community environment, promoting and protecting all fauna and flora and wildlife in our gardens and surrounding countryside. Support will be given to local initiatives on enhancing our environment.
We will provide encouragement of projects for more tree planting and of wildflower areas.
e) We will continue to explore possibilities with regard to obtaining and managing a community area or park area.
f) We will continue to ask for resurfacing of our small roads surfaces, especially in Church Lane and Fen Lane.
g) There will be encouragement of support for re-cycling initiatives.
h) We will continue the maintenance and enhancement of all existing parish assets.
Our prime goals are: i) to be cost effective and obtaining the best value for money; and ii) to achieve the optimum benefit of parishioners, iii) co-ordinating the colours and style of assets.
- We shall continue to encourage volunteers to tend to the flower pots, village green garden and war memorial grounds. We shall move to making these areas easier to care for and more enduring in the long term. We shall continue to encourage litter picking on a smaller but more frequent basis to counteract the constant litter dropping from vehicles.
j) We shall apply due diligence and scrutiny in accepting any donations or gifts and individual contributions to the community.
k) We shall continue our recent successful policy regarding planning applications where we campaigned on those that did not fit in with residents’ wishes and views, nor the district council’s policies. We shall monitor planning applications and be vigilant in representing parishioners views of there being no more new development permitted in the parish.
End