Chance for Rea Valley residents to have a say

People living in and around Pontesbury, Minsterley and Hanwood will be able to say how they think the area could be improved when the new ‘Action: Rea Valley’ local joint committee meets for the first time on Thursday 15 May at Minsterley Village Hall. The meeting starts at 7.00pm, and all people living in the area are invited to attend.

Items due to be discussed at the meeting are speeding and road safety, activities for young people, and grants to support local groups and initiatives.

'Action: Rea Valley’ is a pilot series of meetings to be held four times over the next year. Each meeting will give people in the area a chance to meet with local councillors and get involved in decisions affecting their community.

The committee has a budget of £20,000 that can be spent on local issues over the next 12 months, and people attending each meeting will be able to help decide what the money is spent on.

Yvonne Holyoak, Shropshire County Councillor for Rea Valley, said: ”Action: Rea Valley will give people living in and around Pontesbury, Minsterley and Hanwood a real chance to improve the local area. It will help to ensure that important decisions about the area are made at a local level, and that local people have a real opportunity to influence these decisions.”

“Our meetings will give local people a chance to tell their local councillors how they think the local area could or should be improved, and how the committee should spend its budget. It will also enable us to keep local people up-to-date about the issues that are important to them.”

'Action: Rea Valley’ is one of six new local committees set up by the Shropshire Council Implementation Executive, following the success of five local committee pilots that have been meeting in Shropshire for the past year.

The committee includes local councillors from Shropshire County Council and Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council and local parish councils.

2 May 2008