Chance to share views about life in the Brown Clee area
People who live or work in the communities that make up the Brown Clee area are being invited to share their local knowledge about life in the area at a special evening event on Thursday 14 July 2011.
The parishes for the area form the new Brown Clee Local Joint Committee (LJC) area, for which Robert Tindall is the Shropshire Councillor. He is very much involved and will be looking forward to finding out about community views across the whole LJC area.
This will be the first time that the council has held an event like this for all the parishes in an LJC area, and the aim is to use the outcomes to guide ongoing work locally and to help guide how we work with other communities across Shropshire as well.
Shropshire Council is looking for between 30 and 40 local people to take part in the event, aged around 11 years and up through to parents with children and retired people. We will then be mixing people up to share their local knowledge and views with each other.
Places ideally need to be reserved by Friday 1 July 2011 and the hope is to have a mix of people of different ages and interests, and from different communities in the area, whether from farming communities, small hamlets, or villages such as Ditton Priors.
The one-off event will be held at Cleobury North Village Hall on Thursday 14 July 2011, with refreshments from 6.30pm ahead of a 7pm start. The event will finish at around 9.45pm. There will also be a midpoint break, when as usual with these events the plan is to have cakes provided from a local source. The council is working with the local Guides on this occasion.
The area covers: Aston Botterell, Burwarton and Cleobury North; Billingsley, Deuxhill and Glazeley and Middleton Scriven; Chelmarsh; Chetton; Ditton Priors; Eardington; Morville, Acton Round, Aston Eyre, Monkhopton and Upton Cressett; and Neenton.
Anyone interested in taking part in the event should contact Lois Dale by 30 June 2011 on 01743 255667 or lois.dale@shropshire.gov.uk .
The parish councils and the Neenton Parish Meeting have been invited to get involved, and Ditton Priors Parish Council has already helped Shropshire Council in the run up to this point.
The event will use an interactive approach, already in use with rural parishes in Shropshire, and based on a set of questions about what makes a community sustainable. The same questions are asked wherever it is used, so the answers can be used as a guideline for planning priorities and community priorities in that area.
Councillor Robert Tindall, Shropshire Councillor for Brown Clee, said:
“We are keen to hear from people who may not have been involved in anything before but would be able to give up an evening on this occasion, as well as from people already active in the community who want to share their views.
“This will help to ensure that we have the best-quality information possible about life across the whole of the Brown Clee area, based on local knowledge and views, as well as on the information that we already have as a council. This information will help shape how we meet the future needs of our communities.”
Councillor Gwilym Butler, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for community working, added:
“We need people to come along and take part to tell us what it is like in this LJC area, its positives and negatives. This will form a base for us to work from to plan for the future, delivering what the community wants and needs.”
People will also be asked to give their views on what community benefits might be important to the area, and help their community develop and thrive in the future.
The end results on the day will be an improved evidence base about the local area, and a visual snapshot of the community arrived at using a colour wheel.
