Your Vale, Your Future

This evening the Vale of White Horse District Council held a local forum in Wantage about how we can try and plan for the future. This will form part of a strategy called 'Your Vale - Your Future' which started its consultation last year. Quite a task to take on, especially how we can involve the public? It's a difficult challenge and tonight's showing of just 22 people made it feel quite a 'select few'. But we had 'voting pads' provided by Thames Valley Police - so actually it was quite an innovative way of showing people's preferences when it came to searching questions like how we can improve the quality of life for older people, or having access to good quality green spaces, sport, cultural and leisure facilities. Aspirational stuff indeed!

However, it was good to see a good mix of people there. At the table where I sat, young and older people together were very clear about what they wanted to see, and we agreed that having the freedom to enjoy leisure was a key in planning for the future. We all want space to live in harmony and respect each others' wishes. It was quite an enjoyable meeting, and I can only hope that in some way we have helped to shape things to come.

The next Forum will be held in Faringdon Corn Exchange on Thursday 22nd May and following that in Cumnor Village Hall on Tuesday 17th June. All start at 7pm and finish by 9pm.