Chance to share views about life in Weston Rhyn parish
People who live in and around the various settlements that make up the parish of Weston Rhyn are being invited to put their names forward to share their local knowledge about life in the area, at a special event on Wednesday 4 July 2012.
This includes Bronygarth, Chirk Bank, Craignant, Pentre-newydd, Pont-Faen, Preesgweene, Rhos, Rhoswiel, and Wern, as well as Weston Rhyn itself and any other locations within the parish.
The one-off event will be held at the Village Institute in Bronygarth Road in Weston Rhyn on the evening of Wednesday 4 July 2012, gathering from 6.30pm ahead of a 7pm start. The event will finish at around 9.45pm.
Shropshire Council is looking for between 20 and 30 local people to take part in the event, and names need to be put forward by 2pm on Tuesday 26 June 2012. People will be mixed up into group discussion tables depending on their ages and interests and where they are from in the parish, in order to share their local knowledge and views with each other, and there will also be a parish councillor on each table. People will be sent more information ahead of the event, so contact details are also needed for this purpose.
Trevor Davies, one of the local Shropshire Councillors for the area, 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 and most up to date information possible about life in the area from the people who know. The information will help shape how we meet the future needs of all our communities in Weston Rhyn, in partnership with the parish council, who are very much involved. Previous events have seen young people aged 11 taking part with their parents, right through to people in their 90s, and it would be really good to have a mix of perspectives from young and old here as well. ”
Anyone interested in taking part in the event is asked to please contact principal rural policy officer at Shropshire Council, Lois Dale, by 2pm on 26 June 2012, to make a provisional booking, on 01743 255667 or via email address lois.dale@shropshire.gov.uk.
If there are more than 30 people who come forward, names will be drawn from a hat at that point. Mrs Dale will then contact people and further information will be posted out to participants ahead of the event itself.
The event will use an interactive toolkit 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.
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 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. Local Shropshire Councillors Trevor Davies and David Lloyd are expecting to be there to listen to what people have to say.
Gwilym Butler, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for flourishing Shropshire communities, added:
“We need people to come along and take part to tell us what living in the parish of Weston Rhyn is like, 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.”
