Last Friday, my home village of Twyford held its Christmas Street Fayre. It’s a great occasion, with stalls to promote local good causes and help local businesses, music and singing, entertainment, and, of course, a visit from Father Christmas himself.
We were very lucky; the weather was far from good, but it become truly dire only after the Fayre had finished, and the clear-up operation was over.
I’ve been involved in organizing the Fayre for more than twenty years, as a member of a group of community-minded volunteers, working as part of Twyford Together, an organization which brings together local businesses, charities, councils, and faith groups.
The Fayre and all the hard work that went into putting it on reminded me again of the great sense of community that exists not just in Twyford, but in all the established settlements in Wokingham Borough.
Over the last two and a half years, the new administration at Wokingham Borough Council has been trying to foster and encourage that sense of community and help to build it in the new settlements that have been created in recent years.
A community is not made by bricks and mortar, but by people. It exists only when there are local clubs and societies, and local support networks, and people look out for each other, not just themselves.
The council can and should play a role in helping to build communities, but it should do so alongside others, who know their area well and understand its needs and aspirations.
I am very committed to forging partnerships between the council and the communities that it serves. Empowering communities and the people within them to have a bigger say in their future is part of my political DNA.
One of the things I feel particularly pleased to have helped to initiate is the Community Vision, which reflects the aspirations of our different communities for the next ten years.
Work on the Community Vision has been led by a steering group composed of representatives from the voluntary and charitable sector, business, faith groups, health providers, the University of Reading, and the Youth Council. Borough Council officers provide support, and I attend steering committee meetings whenever I can.
A draft of the Community Vision was shared with the wider public earlier this year and its key themes and objectives were endorsed. To make the consultation truly representative of as wide a cross-section of the population as possible, we devoted time and effort to engage with hard-to-reach groups, especially young people, whose voice is often not heard loudly enough in council consultations.
The Community Vision has now been adopted by the borough council, which has committed to doing all it can to realise the Vision’s aspirations. I’m pleased to say that we have already begun work on addressing some of its asks on access to green space, greater connectivity between communities, and giving everyone the opportunity to thrive.
Our hope, however, is that other organizations in the borough will seek to play their part in achieving the future mapped out in the Vision.
All those involved at the start of the Community Vision work were united by the belief that we can achieve more together for our different communities than we can on our own. Over the coming years we have a great opportunity to live out that belief.
Stephen Conway is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council
