Malling Action Partnership

Malling Action Partnership, or MAP, is a community-based partnership, launched 3 April 2006, to undertake 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.

Latest News

 * From Tuesday, September 5 2006, Nu-Venture Shoppers’ Bus 53, which provides a limited Tuesday and Friday link to West Malling from West Peckham and Mereworth, will be diverted to include the Offham Road and Fartherwell Avenue areas of West Malling, providing these areas with a bus service for the first time in several years. This is an early initiative identified as part of the Malling Action Partnership, under which traders, service providers, local authorities and members of the local community have the opportunity to share ideas, suggestions and possible solutions.

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.

Working groups
Four working groups are already underway working on the Health Check as of July 2006, and all are open to anyone interested in helping.
 * Environment
 * Transport and Accessibility
 * Social and community
 * Economic

Future meetings

 * Working groups continue to meet throughout the summer / autumn, and all are open to anyone interested in helping.
 * Next Environment group meeting - September 14 2006
 * The next general MAP meeting for everyone is scheduled for October 31 2006, 7.30pm at West Malling Church of England Primary School
 * The next Steering Group meeting is October 10 2006



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
 * Parish, Borough and County Councils

Steering group
In addition to the 4 working groups, an overall Steering group meets regularly.

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

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

Chairpersons of Working groups

 * Environment - Phil Green - phil (at) ralph29.demon.co.uk
 * Transport and Accessibility - Norman Kemp - nuventurecoachesltd (at) yahoo.co.uk
 * Social and community - Molly Potts - robert.vago (at) virgin.net
 * Economic - Sash Luck - theoldclockshop (at) tesco.net

Other contacts

 * West Malling Parish Council Clerk - Carole D'Silva - carole.wmpc (at) btconnect.com
 * MAP Co-ordinator - Keith Bullard - NEWMARKCCKMB (at) btinternet.com
 * MAP Chair - Trudy Dean - trudy.dean (at) kent.gov.uk
 * Action with Communities in Rural Kent - Richard Backhouse - Richard.Backhouse (at) ruralkent.org.uk

Related Wiki pages

 * West Malling