Welcome to your local community website...
'Golden opportunity' for Beaconsfield improvement
The people behind a new five year plan for Beaconsfield have been told they are looking at a golden opportunity to improve the town.
Sarah Allwood of Bucks Community Action, who has helped many towns with their plans, said it would massively increase Beaconsfield's chances of getting funding for new projects.
Up to a hundred representatives of different sections of the community in Beaconsfield meet tonight to thrash out ideas which will be used as the basis of a town wide consultation.
The meeting, at the Fitzwilliams Centre on Windsor End, Old Town, is being chaired by Sandy Saunders of The Beaconsfield Society at the request of Beaconsfield Town Council which has been given £1,000 by South Bucks District Council to draw up a parish plan.
Sarah Allwood said, in a presentation to Beaconsfield Town Council on January 8: "Hand on heart I promise you this makes a difference, and people take it seriously. These appraisals are being fed directly into strategies and they are directly influencing the resources that are being fed into communities.
"The plan will give you the evidence that funders are looking for. Say you wanted to put a skateboard park in, and you go to the lottery for a grant, more often than not they will ask to see your parish plan because it provides evidence of need."
She said that parish plan consultations typically achieve response rates of 90 per cent and that the process can pull the community together. After that's completed, the steering group will draw up a list of priorities and develop an action plan to submit to Bucks County Council.
Ms Allwood said that tonight's meeting would be "an amazing experience," based on what she has witnessed in other towns. She said: "To see hundreds of people coming through the doors, writing on post-it notes and talking to each other when they hadn't before, it's quite heart warming."
We'd like to hear from you. Send your stories, pics and videos
Leave a comment