MAP Healthcheck and vision

The Partnership: The Malling Action Partnership was brought together by West Malling Parish Council, is chaired by Trudy Dean (County Councillor and Parish Councillor). The Coordinator is Keith Bullard (Parish Councillor), the Secretary is Jane Gosney (resident) and Treasurer is Carole D’Silva (Parish Clerk). The Partnership is made up of individuals from organisations representing the whole of the local community: Steering Group Organisations Action with Communities in Rural Kent Ryarsh Parish Council Birling Parish Council The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin Borough Council Tonbridge & Malling Other Neighbouring Parish Councils Bus Operators NuVenture & Arriva Town Malling Cricket Club Clout Institute West Malling Parish Council East Malling & Larkfield Parish Council West Malling Active Retirement Association MARA Joint Parish Councils Transport Consultation Group (JPCTCG) WM Age Concern KCC WM Art Society KCC Kent Rural Towns WM CEP School & Parents Kent Police (Local) WM Chamber of Commerce Kings Hill Active Retirement Association (Kinara) WM Group Practice Leybourne Parish Council WM Lions Malling Society WM National Association of Fine & Decorative Arts (NADFAS) Mereworth Parish Council WM Photographic Society Neville Court Residents Assoc. WM Service Industries Offham Parish Council WM Speedwatch Parsonage Court Residents Association WM Traders Pilsden at Malling Community WM Womens Institute (WI) There have been regular steering meetings to manage the completion of the Health Check and development/agreement of the Action Plan. The worksheets have had contributions from a number of organisations: Social & Community – The Malling Society, Women’s Institute, Malling Cricket Club, Age Concern and CEP Primary School with support from Kent County Council and Action for Communities in Rural Kent Economic - West Malling Chamber of Commerce, other local businesses and local residents Transport – NuVenture (local bus operator), the Joint Parish Council Transport Consultative Group consisting of representatives of each of the Parish Councils in the MAP area, Speedwatch – a resident’s group that monitors the speed of vehicles in the area Environment – Local residents with an interest in environmental issues, plus Parish and County Councillors Some gaps in the worksheets were completed by Kathy Bugden of Action for Communities in Rural Kent who facilitated a community issues workshop and fed back a range of issues into all the worksheets. Additionally final gaps were completed via desk research by a consultant, Kate Fairweather, who also facilitated a business issues workshop, vision and action prioritisation workshops and drafted the Action Plan. See Annex 2 for the detailed contact and consultation report. The schedule of activities for the development of the Action Plan is as follows: MAP EVENT DATE Response or Attended Launch of MAP Program 04-Apr-06 36 Formation of Working Groups 13-Jun-06 18 Town Malling Day (400 Promotional Leaflets) 01-May-07 N/A ACRK Skills Workshop Transfer 31-Aug-06 12 MAP W.Malling Library Display 01-30/06/2006 15 MAP Status Checkpoint Meet 31-Oct-06 13 East Malling Community Day 14-Jul-07 9 Environment (Al Gore) Event 18-Jul-07 34 Joint Parish Councils Transport Consultative Group (JPCTCG) 01-Aug-07 23 Issues Workshop – community consultation 14-Nov-07 37 Chamber of Commerce issues workshop 23-Apr-08 14 Business consultation 27-May-08 18 Community consultation 06-Jun-08 8

TOTAL

183 In addition to these consultation meetings the MAP Steering Group has produced nine Newsletters, circulated to all organisations and individuals who expressed an interest in the project. Additionally MAP has run a website with regular updates. MAP Newsletters DATE MAP Launch Feedback Apr-06 MAP Kickoff Announcement Jun-06 MAP Kickoff Feedback Jun-06 MAP Website - Skill Share Feedback Sep-06 MAP W.Malling Library Display Jun-07 East Malling Community Day & Al Gore Video Jul-07 Environment (Al Gore) Event Feedback Aug-07 Transport & Environment Issues Workshop Oct-07 Economy Issues Workshop Jun-08

Contact: Keith Bullard, Health Check coordinator – 01732 843699, email newmarkcckmb@btinternet.com

The Health Check The Malling Action Partnership (MAP) has produced detailed Health Check worksheets covering all aspects of the MAP area and consulted widely with the local community. See Annex 3 for the Snapshot and Annex 4 for the detailed worksheet results. The Health Check was mainly produced from desk research and local knowledge; however the Community Issues Workshop in November 2007 and Business Issues workshop in April 2008 were critical to identifying the key areas for attention as far as the local community are concerned and fed into all the worksheets. This process produced a draft Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threat Analysis and development of ideas for addressing the critical issues. The draft SWOT and actions were presented to Business and Community Consultation Groups for agreement, and then distributed via newsletters to the partnership for final input. The business and community consultation groups also produced the Vision statement. The Vision:

“In 10 years time we want West Malling to be a successful, thriving and sustainable historic market town of character. We want Malling to be a safe and pleasant place to live, work and visit - West Malling itself and businesses in the Malling area providing the full range of local produce, products and services needed by the Malling community – the best market town in the area Malling area retaining its unique rural villages and with housing for local young people to settle with their families Supported by an active and involved Malling community with a balance of age groups Attracting a wide range of visitors and tourists for shopping, services and to restaurants, cafes and pubs across the Malling area Achieving an environmentally sustainable, low carbon community”