Parish Plans are a government initiative to encourage small rural communities to have more of a voice and a stronger influence on the future of their parish. The purpose of our Parish Plan has been to allow all villagers to express their thoughts and ideas on how they would like to see our Village develop over the next ten years and then to devise an Action Plan to achieve the changes and improvements which had been identified.

A questionnaire was given to every house in the village, to give everyone the chance to comment, and was completed by almost 500 households – nearly 70% of the village. The analysis of the responses resulted in the Ryton-on-Dunsmore Parish Plan and the setting up of 8 Action Groups. The members of these groups are all volunteers from the village. The aim of each these Action Groups, together with the Parish Council, is to work towards addressing the different issues raised in the plan and bring about the changes that had been clearly asked for by the villagers in their responses to the questionnaire.

The Action Groups created at the time were:

  • Community Centre Action Group
  • Community Transport Action Group
  • Countryside Action Group
  • Dog Owners Action Group
  • Good Neighbour Action Group
  • Village Directory Action Group
  • Village Newsletter Action Group
  • Village Website Action Group