Help shape our vision for the future
Wokingham Borough Council has launched an initiative to get local residents, businesses and communities to contribute to its Wokingham Borough Plan and be part of its vision.
Wokingham Borough Council has published a draft Borough Plan that sets out a proposed vision for the area, the values and principles it will follow and the priorities it will focus on. It welcomes responses from all residents, voluntary/community groups and local businesses and will use the feedback to help produce a joint vision for the borough.
The draft Borough Plan will be available online together with a questionnaire for feedback from 1 to 30 September, and the Council will also hold a series of roadshow events during September to talk to people about the draft plan. After the public consultation, Wokingham Borough Council will engage with service providers (such as Thames Valley Police and health services), businesses representatives and community organisations in order to finalise the joint plan.
Deputy leader of Wokingham Borough Council Cllr Julian McGhee-Sumner said: “We need a new relationship with residents and this consultation is the starting point for that. In the past, local government was seen as having all the answers but that is no longer the case; where there are problems, it may be that the local authority does not have the solutions but can empower people or other organisations to come up with them.
“A key part of this new relationship needs to be trust. We need to trust the public to be central to how we make decisions but we also need to win the trust of the public by showing that we listen and act on their concerns: that is what the proposed consultation is about.”
Wokingham Borough Council Roadshows
Wokingham Borough Council staff and members will be available to talk about the draft Borough Plan at:
Woodley Precinct from 11am to 3pm on Saturday 8 September
Twyford Waitrose from 11am to 3pm on Saturday 15 September
Wokingham Town Centre from 11am to 3pm on Friday 21 September
Lower Earley ASDA from 11am to 3pm on Saturday 22 September
Cllr McGhee-Sumner added: “I urge everybody to take this opportunity to give us their thoughts. We do have a draft plan but it is meaningless unless we hear what people think about it and change it accordingly. The plan will set out a vision of what sort of place we want to live in and how we can all contribute to achieving that vision.
Find out more
The draft Borough Plan and questionnaire is available on the Council website:
Wokingham Borough Council Proposed Plan
