Overview

Parish Online was adopted by Faversham Town Council to assist in their Neighbourhood Plan project and has since led them to use it for many more daily council tasks.

Content

Using Parish Online to produce PDF and interactive maps to show all the various elements of a Neighbourhood Plan has become an important aspect of the software for hundreds of local councils around the country. It’s also the key reason that Adrienne, Deputy Town Clerk at Faversham Town Council, took on the web-based mapping software. As their plan progresses, different themes of information are being plotted into their Parish Online account in order to confirm their plans internally, and then to share them with the local authority and, when ready, the public.

In the short time that Faversham have had their Parish Online subscription they’ve been able use the software for a variety of other tasks that save the council time and money, including:

• Producing site and block plans for planning applications and event notices completely free, saving the cost of purchasing the maps elsewhere.

• Extracting residential address records for all properties within proposed adjustments to conservation areas.

• Adding allotment sites to the National Allotment Map, ensuring accurate and up-to-date records are held for them.

• Using the map as a tool for discussions and debates surrounding SHLAA sites and styling the map to show the final approved sites.
• Beginning to plot their assets, such as the jetty in the centre of town. Adding documents as attachments such as insurance and maintenance records also makes this information immediately available should it be required.

Adrienne and her colleagues have shown how powerful the use of a digital mapping system can be as an online storage system for maps, data and documents. This information, once stored in Parish Online,  helps Faversham with their everyday tasks and strategic plans.

Many Town Councils across the country use Parish Online and many more have joined this year as remote working makes the need for instant-access to data all the more important.

Benefits

 “As part of the Neighbourhood Plan process the Steering Group have suggested extending the Conservation Area. Parish Online has been really useful for mapping these proposed changes, allowing the area to be drawn to detail around individual properties. I was then able share professional detailed plans with the Local Authority"

Adrienne Begent, Deputy Clerk for Faversham Town Council

 

 

About Faversham Town Council

The final resting place of King Stephen is allegedly in Faversham. King Stephen was buried alongside his wife Queen Matilda and son Eustace in grounds of Faversham Abbey 1154.  The Abbey was dissolved in 1538 by Henry VIII and most of it was demolished. However, after an excavation of the site in 1964 the empty graves of King Stephen and his family were found.

Legend has it their bones were thrown into Faversham Creek when the building was dismantled.

However, the exact location of his skeleton remains shrouded in mystery as rumours circulated that a canopy tomb with no contemporary inscription in nearby Faversham Parish Church of St Mary of Charity could now be home to the bones.

 All pictures sent to us by Faversham Town Council