Do you have views on what you want your community to be like in the years ahead?
Wokingham Borough Council is hosting a public consultation on a draft of the Community Vision. The consultation runs until June 28, and can be found on engage.wokingham.gov.uk.
Co-authored by a great range of community groups working alongside the council, the Vision aims to capture the hopes and aspirations of different parts of the community.
It will influence the council’s direction of travel over the next decade and more. We now need to know your views on the themes and priorities identified.
The draft of the Community Vision is the fruit of a new 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 priorities are shaped by the people who live and work in the borough.
To this end, we have been working with key stakeholders to get a sense of what they think the council’s priorities should be.
We have had successful workshops with the voluntary and charitable sector, town and parish councils, and businesses, and two forum sessions with a wider range of stakeholders, 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 council, and the enthusiasm to participate on that basis has come across strongly.
Some months ago a steering group was formed to carry forward the work on the Community Vision. The steering group 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 the Wokingham Volunteer Centre.
The leaders of the political groups on the council have a standing invitation to attend and I do my best to be at every meeting.
After all the important preparatory work done over the last year or more, we are at the point where we want to open up the conversation to the wider population, beyond those groups with which we have already engaged.
We are trying to include as many people as we can, to ensure that the final Community Vision reflects as many viewpoints as possible.
This is where you can play an important role. Please give us your views on whether the themes identified in the draft Community Vision reflect your aspirations for the future.
Once the Community Vision work is completed, the next step is for the council to use the Vision as a guide for drawing up its own strategy and the policies that flow from that.
There will be periodic refreshes in the years ahead, to make sure the council is still heading in the direction that the community wants.
Cllr Stephen Conway is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council and ward member for Twyford, Ruscombe and Hurst
