User:Philralph/sandbox



Malling Action Partnership, or MAP, is a community-based partnership, launched 3 April 2006, that has undertaken a Market Towns Initiative 'health check' in the market town of West Malling (Kent, England) and its hinterland. A health check is just a detailed look at local services and seeing if they provide all the things that people who live in, work in, or visit the town, need and want.

Healthcheck report
The healthcheck is now completed. An illustrated online version of the report is included here on our wiki pages - click on the following link to go to first page - MAP Action plan 2009-2011. Comment welcome, for example via talk pages (accessed via discussion tabs)

News

 * December 2008 The healthcheck is now completed. An illustrated online version of the final document is to be set up here on our wiki pages. Comment welcome, for example via talk pages (accessed via discussion tabs)
 * March 2007 feature on MAP Environment group page -  Neighbourhood Fix-It rss feed and links
 * November 2006 - MAP general comments page - use this page to write comments about living, working, shopping, getting around, etc. in West Malling and its surrounding villages.
 * Low carbon community initiative - also use the MAP general comments page page to support or otherwise comment on this idea.
 * Changes to talk pages:
 * December 6 2006 Talk:Transport Snapshot for the West Malling area - ARRIVA Bus Services change of routing from A228???

Hinterland
Broadly speaking the hinterland is seen as including the adjoining parishes of
 * Addington
 * Birling
 * East Malling and Larkfield
 * Kings Hill
 * Leybourne
 * Mereworth
 * Offham
 * Ryarsh
 * Trottiscliffe

Vision and Action Plan

 * The health check is intended to lead to a community-developed vision for the future of West Malling as a market town, and an action plan. MAP will then help advance community-chosen most-needed projects.

Contact MAP
Remember to change the (at) to the appropriate symbol in the contact details given below

Working groups
Four working groups are covering different aspects of the Health Check, and all are open to anyone interested in helping.
 * Transport and Accessibility - Chair: Norman Kemp - nuventurecoachesltd (at) yahoo.co.uk
 * Social and community - Chair: Molly Potts - robert.vago (at) virgin.net
 * Economic - Chair: Sash Luck - theoldclockshop (at) tesco.net
 * Environment - Chair: vacant as at March 2007

Other contacts

 * West Malling Parish Council Clerk - Carole D'Silva - carole.wmpc (at) btconnect.com
 * MAP Co-ordinator - Keith Bullard, talk - NEWMARKCCKMB (at) btinternet.com
 * MAP Chair - Trudy Dean, talk - trudy.dean (at) kent.gov.uk
 * Action with Communities in Rural Kent -
 * advice / help re using this wiki - Philralph, talk

Future meetings

 * Working groups are continuing their meetings and activities throughout the autumn and winter, and all are open to anyone interested in helping.
 * The next general MAP meeting for everyone is likely to be early 2007 (Proposed meeting for December 2006 not now going ahead)
 * The next Steering Group meeting is being arranged for after Christmas

Previous meetings

 * MAP environment forum October 31 2006 - you can add further comment, but please read the introductory paragraphs first.
 * MAP skill share workshop August 2006 - some feedback and flipchart listings

Communicating with the local community
As well as more informal communications, MAP produces a regular Newsletter and aims to keep anyone interested, even if not able to actively contribute at the present time, informed about progress.

Who is taking part in MAP?
So far, the following groups have sent representatives to MAP meetings:
 * Chamber of Commerce
 * West Malling Church of England Primary School
 * Nu-Venture buses
 * Malling Society
 * West Malling Village Hall Committee
 * Age Concern
 * Town Malling Cricket Club
 * Malling Lions
 * Malling Photographic Society
 * Malling Area Volunteer Bureau
 * Pilsdon at Malling
 * Parish, Borough and County Councils

Support for MAP
MAP is also supported by
 * Project consultants: Action with Communities in Rural Kent
 * Kent County Council
 * South East Rural Towns Partnership
 * South East England Development Agency

The Market Towns Initiative has been developed from an initiative of the Countryside Agency, now part of Natural England

Related topics

 * MAP draft publicity leaflet