Burwell Parish Council Strategic Plan
Discover how we worked with Burwell Parish Council to develop a Strategic Plan that will guide the work of the Council over the next 5 years.
About the project
Funder
Burwell Parish Council commissioned Cambridgeshire ACRE to support them in this piece of work.
Why is this needed?
Burwell is one of the larger and older villages in Cambridgeshire, situated on the edge of the Fens. Over 8,000 people live there and the Parish Council has a wide range of responsibilities overseeing community assets and services including sports and playing fields, community buildings, public toilets, the cemetery and chapel and 12 community green spaces. Burwell Parish Council approached Cambridgeshire ACRE when they needed our support to find a way to consider future local priorities and think about how they could deliver better benefits to their community through the activities they undertook.
When approached by any new consultancy client we always spend time to meet with them to find out their needs and the reasoning behind their request for our support. Working with the client we develop a proposal so that there is a full understanding of who will need to be involved, what is to achieve, the timescales and costs. For Burwell, we agreed to provide a demographic profile to give an overview of the growing population and future community needs; a questionnaire for councillors to provide individual views and then ran a one-day workshop to establish a way forward. At that workshop, interactive group exercises supported with the mapping of council assets and consideration of their current management. Once assets and services had been identified, councillors prioritised the specific actions needed to manage, plan and develop them in Burwell over the next 5 years. They then discussed how councillors could form working groups to maximise their individual skills and considered how the governance of the Council could be best organised to deliver identified actions.
How can you get involved?
Cambridgeshire ACRE can support other town and parish councils and rural communities in a similar way. Please do enquire if you feel you need to discuss your requirements and we can have a no-obligation chat about possible approaches and options for community action in your parish.
What impact has our work had?
The work empowered Burwell Parish Councillors to understand the extent of the assets they manage and enabled them to bring together a shared vision for the assets and services the Parish will need in the future. A stronger working group framework has helped them achieve some excellent outcomes over the last four years including:
- The Gardiner Memorial Hall situated in the High Street was built in 1915. The building is well used by the community but is now in desperate need of updating and extending to meet the needs of the growing community. Burwell Parish Council is working with a Design Team including Saunders Boston Limited (Architects), Varsity Consulting Limited (Project Management and Quantity Surveying), Sharman Grimwade (Electrical and Mechanical Consultants) and others to bring the hall into the 21st Century and make it more sustainable in the longer term. A fundraising plan has helped get the following funds in place for the project: (1) Burwell Parish Council earmarked reserves £15,000; (2) Community Infrastructure Levy receipts £150,000; (3) Cambridgeshire County Council capital grant £131,125; (4) East Cambridgeshire District Council CIL 123 funding £180,000.
- Enhancing a community nature reserve by supporting the establishment of a charity to manage Pauline’s Swamp, land left in a deed of trust to Burwell Parish Council in 2007. The site is now managed by the Trustees of Pauline’s Swamp, with the help of a group of professional advisors and the Friends of Pauline’s Swamp. Open days and working parties are held to encourage community engagement and participation.
- Significant improvements have been made at the Recreation Ground including improvements to a number of football pitches and a pavilion with changing rooms They have also added a skateboard/BMX park, outdoor gym equipment, tennis courts, trim track and recently constructed play area.
Updates
For the Cambridgeshire Local Councils Conference 2021 a video was prepared showing the progress of the work of the Parish Council in Burwell.
