More than eighteen months ago, I stood in front of a packed meeting in Wokingham Town Hall Work to sketch out the idea of a Community Vision that would set out the aspirations of the borough for the years ahead.
After a lot of hard work and effort by many people outside as well as inside the council, that Community Vision is now ready to be brought to October’s borough council meeting and presented to councillors for their approval.
This has been a truly collaborative effort, involving many different people from across the borough. After the launch at the town hall, there was a series of productive workshops with the voluntary and charitable sector, town and parish councils, and businesses.
There were also two forum sessions with a wider range of participants, including the probation service, the chamber of commerce, health providers, the fire service and police, faith groups, educators (including Reading University and local schools) and the Youth Council. All have been involved as equal partners with the borough council.
A steering group was formed to carry forward the work on the Community Vision. It includes representatives from business, the charitable sector, health providers, faith groups, the Youth Council, Reading University, and council officers. The chair is Nick Fellows, of Wokingham Volunteer Centre.
I am enormously grateful to all the members of the steering group for their hard work and commitment over many months. Without their dedication and enthusiasm, we would not have made the incredible progress that we have done.
I also want to thank all those residents and businesses who responded to our recent consultation of the draft Community Vision that we produced earlier this year. The level of approval of the broad objectives of the draft is very pleasing.
I see the Community Vision as the fruit of a new and radical approach to how the council serves its residents and businesses. In the past, the council has consulted on its strategies and plans after they have been formed. Our ambition now is for a less top-down and more bottom-up method of engaging the community, where the broad priorities are shaped by the people who live and work in the borough.
Of course, priorities will change over the lifetime of the Vision, and there will need to be periodic refreshes in the years ahead, to make sure the council is still heading in the direction that the community wants.
But we should celebrate a great and significant achievement. I can think of very few examples of a council initiating a process and then facilitating others taking the lead.
That’s what the borough council has done with the Community Vision. We have sought to call on the energy, enthusiasm, experience and knowledge within our community. The Community Vision, and the process by which it has been drawn up, reflects a new commitment to empowering the people of the borough to help shape their future.
Stephen Conway is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council
