East Devon Sustainable Community Plan, and the Community Planning process

Community planning is about getting organisations to work together to improve the things that local communities need.

Very simply, community planning is about:

Finding out what really needs to be done for local people
Establishing what is already being done
Agreeing what new things should be done first and realistic ways to do it
Agreeing who will do it, and how, and then checking whether its been done.

The aim of community planning is to improve the quality of life for people living in, working in or visiting the District. It aims to identify the often complicated and conflicting issues which affect the area, and to bring the right people together to work out solutions which will make a difference.

Community plans should take a wide view of all the issues affecting the area, not just from the perspective of the big organisations involved. Plans should look ahead 10 or 20 years to identify the long term effect of what we do and plan to do.

As part of the Local Government Act 2000, local authorities (councils) have a legal duty to prepare a sustainable Community Strategy (often called a sustainable community plan) to promote the economic, social and environmental well-being of their areas but they must work with other agencies to do so.

These strategies are meant to ensure that organisations which provide services to the public are:

Better co-ordinated
Respond to the real needs and concerns of local communities
Deliver services in ways people want
Consider the needs of future generations.

Who is responsible for producing the community plan?

Community plans must be prepared and tackled by a broadly based Local Strategic Partnership (LSP).

The East Devon Local Strategic Partnership includes representatives for: the District, County, Town and Parish Councils, Devon Primary Care Trust, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, East Devon Council for Voluntary Services, and the business community.

The LSP also includes representatives whose job is to make sure the LSP stands up for the interests of older people, young people, the environment, the economy, health, leisure, housing, and disadvantaged people within the geographical area of East Devon.

The “Board"(LSP) supported by an Officer Group (LSP Officer Group) meets quarterly for approximately two hours to discuss a pre-agreed agenda. Other people are welcome to attend the LSP as observers. The “Board” Minutes are posted on East Devon District Council’s website.

Any organisation who feels they may be helping to deliver the LSP’s priorities may ask to present to the LSP but will not normally be permitted a presentation longer than 15 minutes which must be focussed on the way in which work will assist the LSP priorities.

The current East Devon Sustainable Community Plan (604KB - 29 October 2010 - PDF Help) has seven themes. Each theme links to more detailed strategies, and multi-agency working, and each highlights one priority area to tackle. These priorities have been adopted as a result of the collation of public consultation data, statistics from research on various aspects of East Devon’s communities and places, and consultation with agencies who serve East Devon’s communities. We have focussed on those areas where no one agency has the principal responsibility and hence action requires partnership.

How does the LSP work?

The concept behind East Devon’s LSP is that it does not principally commission work or projects but acts to:

Monitor, scrutinise and highlight areas where East Devon’s sustainable Community Plan or Local Area Agreement priorities are not being met, and applying pressure to address this.
Seeks multi-agency agreement and sign up to jointly address the priorities for East Devon.
Work through existing mechanisms, organisations, groups consultation mechanisms and funding streams wherever possible.
Help collate and share results of major local consultations and data collection exercises.
To lobby county, regional and national bodies on the priority issues recognised in the East Devon Sustainable Community Plan.
To seek how individuals and organisations can engage in helping to deliver against the priority issues in East Devon’s Sustainable Community Plan.
To identify how and promote in land use terms, the infrastructure for the priority issues in the Sustainable Community Plan.

Thus the LSP is a ‘background’ organisation, without its own budget or staff, seeking to deliver through existing bodies and resources.

What about County, Parish and Town Plans?

The LSP will take into account what local people are saying in their parish plans and Market & CoastalTown (MCTi Plans). These plans often involve a large proportion of local residents, many more than postal or face to face surveys. These plans should therefore feed into the District Sustainable Community Plan, and the Local Development Framework where common themes and concerns will be picked up. In the same way, we need to take account of issues that are coming out at a bigger, county-wide scale, through the Devon Strategic Partnership and Local Area Agreements.

Other Links

East Devon Sustainable Community Plan (604KB - 29 October 2010 - PDF Help)

Devon County Council Community Planning

Community Council for Devon

East Devon Council for Voluntary Service

Devon Partnership Agreement

Page last updated on 2 December 2011