Warwickshire News Mine

They included a group of enthusiastic young people from North Leamington Community School and Arts College and Lillington Youth Centre who certainly livened up the proceedings and generated a lot of interesting debate in the workshops.

At the lively forum, which was held in North Leamington Upper School on 18th June, groups were asked to come up with a ‘big idea’ that would have a positive impact on their community - and then had to ‘pitch’ it to the rest of the Forum. 

A lot of the ideas focused on improving the local environment, improving park areas, identifying and regenerating green space and providing safer access for all. 

Another suggestion that proved popular with everyone was about extending the range of everyday facilities for young people, particularly out of school hours, and providing more intergenerational opportunities by opening these facilities out to older people. 

The overarching theme which emerged during the evening was about building relationships between all age groups to lead to more respect and understanding between generations and a better community spirit.

Cllr Robert Cunliffe, the Chair of the North Leamington Community Forum, said: “This first forum has provided us with lots of ideas for actions that will improve the quality of life for residents in the area. We now have to go away and make it happen and report back on our progress at the next forum in September.”

The Community Forum already has three community safety priorities that came from the public events held at Trinity Catholic School and Lillington Free Church last year. They are:

• Road Safety (includes speeding and parking)
• Serious acquisitive crime (includes theft of and from cars)
• Cycling

Action plans have been developed to address all the issues involved under each priority heading.

Two more general priorities will be added as a result of the views put forward at the Community Forum event in June.

Community Forums are interactive events that enable people to find out about big issues affecting their area, get answers to questions and influence local decision-making.

Anyone with a question about a local issue can go along and put it to their local councillors and to officers from a range of organisations including Warwickshire County Council, the District and Borough Councils, Warwickshire Primary Care Trust, Warwickshire Police and others.

For more information on Community Forums in Warwick District contact Anita Kendall, email anitakendall@warwickshire.gov.uk.

Link to WCC