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Community consultation - a true open input

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2010-08-04 07:33:20 - Graham Ellis

Overdue report from last week ...

Tuesday ... where should we be going? What should stop?

Community Area Partnership Consultation, Assembly Hall, Melksham. An open meeting, where any members of the community who wished could add there voice on "what's good in the Melksham area", "Where should Melksham be going / what should we be doing" and "How can we be inclusive, including reaching the harder-to-reach groups". Arranged in six tables in six broad subject area, with everyone having the opportunity to go round their choice of four of the six tables.


How refreshing to be able for once to make any input at all rather than selecting between a number of options that are pre-selected by some agency or other to the exclusion of reasonable options which don't quite fit with what their public "servants" want to do ;-)


At the end of the evening we did all vote - but on the options the whole room had put together and not on those we had been spoon fed ... pictures show the result sheets with the subjects with the most votes.

Conclusions:

1. Melksham is a friendly place that needs to be prouder of itself and "sell" itself better

2. Melksham needs better transport access - especially public transport / decent ways in and out and should not be relying on limited car parking - there should be a better way

3. Melksham would like to look at becoming [more] self-sufficient in terms of energy; the idea of a wind farm or similar attracted a very large number of votes.

4. Melksham wants to ensure that the infrastructure is in place for the expanding town (note - that is NOT an objection to the town expanding!)


Am I surprised? Not really, though conclusion (3) was a little bit from left field. And it's good to not really be surprised as it means that the CAP is quite well in turn with the inputs that may come.

Where from here? This lot goes towards the community plan - setting out over the next couple of years where Melksham should be headed and where it should fit into the community.

Want to see the full results? I have put up a copy of each of the six voting sheets [here]