Improving communities together
South Gloucestershire Council and its partners identified five Priority Neighbourhoods (Cadbury Heath, Filton, Kingswood, Patchway and Staple Hill) in October 2006 as areas which needed additional support in order to improve the quality of life for local residents and make the areas safer and stronger. In July 2009 the council also agreed that west Yate and Dodington should also become a Priority Neighbourhood.
During 2007 and 2008 extensive and creative community consultation with Planning For Real exercises were undertaken throughout all the five Priority Neighbourhoods. Through Planning For Real local people have told the council and partners about the issues that most mattered to them as a community. Key stakeholder groups were established to develop and co-ordinate practical action plans for each area.
We have been working in partnership with residents, local groups, agencies and Safer Stronger Groups to get things done. In each Priority Neighbourhood a variety of great things have taken place; newsletters have been produced giving examples of what’s happening locally in response to what local residents said.
During 2009 work has also been carried out to get a clear and true picture of the Priority Neighbourhoods; detailed community profiles and summary profiles have been produced. Statistics, data and information has been collected and compared at a Priority Neighbourhood level against both South Gloucestershire as a whole and sometimes on a national level. For some topic/theme areas the Priority Neighbourhoods have compared well and for other themes there are greater challenges for the individual neighbourhoods compared to those elsewhere.
For the way forward, the next stage going into 2010 is to work with partners and residents to find out if local priorities have changed and develop revised action plans. In each Priority Neighbourhood Community Events will take place where residents can find out more about their local Community Profiles and results from Planning For Real, help shape future priorities and get information about local groups and agencies.
Residents and groups can continue to have a greater voice and influence local decisions and priorities by getting involved in their local Safer Stronger Group (see link under more in this topic).
Contact the Community Engagement Team on 01454 865839 or email priorityneighbourhoods@southglos.gov.uk