Town Plan

Before the pandemic, Deal Town Council started a Town Plan process. The first part of that process was to ask the question, "do we need one?". The Council consulted with community leaders from across the Deal area and the answer was "yes". A Town Plan can provide clear targets, better focus, improved use of resources and direction in a rapidly changing world. So the Town Plan became a project and then became, almost immediately, a casualty of the pandemic.

In Autumn 2021, the Council restarted the Town Plan process. So the aim is to produce a medium-term (3-5 year) plan. It is to be a live document with actions that the council can actively pursue, whether on its own or with partners such as Dover District Council or Kent County Council. Essentially, it must be a people's plan. That means that the Plan starts with you and your ideas. 

In December we delivered Town Plan survey leaflets to every household in Deal asking three questions:

1. What's good about Deal?
2. What do you not like about Deal?
3. What could be done to make Deal even better?

We asked community leaders these questions back in January 2020. You can see their answers below along with more background on how the Town Plan process started.

Town Plan Background

With the arrival of a new decade, Deal Town Council began the process of looking at developing a new Town Plan. No assumptions were made at this point, the Council wanted to investigate the need, potential content and the type of Plan.

So on Wednesday 29 January 2020 the Deal Plan public consultation took place. There was a Public Display in the Town Hall Chamber where visitors were asked three questions:

1. What’s good about Deal?

2. What do you not like about Deal?

3. What could be done to make Deal even better?

These are the answers visitors gave to these three questions throughout the day.

In the evening there was a meeting of representatives from a wide range of community organisations. Guests had time to view the Plan Display and then guided by an external facilitator, Dr Cheryl Mvula, participants worked through a series of activities generating a considerable amount of information. This information has also been summarised. The guests appreciated that Deal Town Council had shown commitment to a participatory approach to developing a potential Plan. There was a clear consensus in the room that a grass roots driven Plan is needed with a shared vision of how to develop Deal. 

Since then the world has been turned upside down by the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic and new phrases have entered our language like “social distancing”, “build back better” and “the new normal”. Society has adapted dramatically to the necessary draconian measures implemented to contain the virus. We work from home, we meet virtually, we isolate, we don’t gather together, we don’t go out socialising or for entertainment or for arts, we don’t use public transport, but we do walk and cycle more. We have lost family and friends and we may still lose businesses and venues that just cannot withstand the vagaries of the pandemic measures.

TOWN PLAN SURVEY - HAVE YOUR SAY NOW!