A Quality Parish

The purpose of the Quality Parish Council awards is to raise the level of public involvement in local government. To this end the award is  based on an assessment of how well a Parish communicates with its residents, how robust are its business systems and how well does it conform to standards of good governance. A key element in the award is that all Parish Council members should be elected every 4 years.

Kempsey Parish Council is one of the small number of parishes to secure the award in Worcestershire. The Council was able to demonstrate that communication with residents was regular and frequent, through public notice boards, publication of extracts from the minutes of Council meetings in the Parish Magazine, holding an annual Parochial meeting, and, most importantly, through having a detailed Parish Plan. This was delivered to every household, and a recent update on progress was also delivered.

Further channels of communication are being made through the establishment of this website.

Equally important has been the substantial investment in the building of a dedicated Parish Office, the installation of new IT equipment,  and the streamlining of administrative processes.

It goes without saying that a pivotal role in achieving Quality Parish status is played by the Clerk of the Council, whose qualifications in our case meet the very highest standards required.

The benefit of achieving the award is that we are able to undertake tasks delegated from higher authorities such as the County and District Councils. This delegation involves financial support. Thus we have been able to appoint a Lengthsman to help keep our paths and verges in good order, and have recently undertaken trials of litter picking. There is also an opportunity to further improve administrative processes in the planning area, for which we have received a bursary. None of this would have been possible without Quality Parish Status

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