Telford & Wrekin residents help shape places for prizes
Helping to shape the future of Telford and Wrekin has never been so much fun for four competition winners.
Telford & Wrekin Council has been engaging with residents to find out what they think could improve their local areas. Alongside the consultation, a photography competition has been held. Residents were asked to take a picture of something that they thought was great, or not so great in the borough. In total 75 photos were received.
Four prizes were up for grabs: a laptop donated by Capgemini, two cameras donated by Makita and two museum tickets donated by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.
First prize has gone to Mike Lear for his photo of Wrockwardine village, as caption to his photo Mike said: “Whilst developing the new, it’s important to retain the old so we don’t lose sight of our tradition and history. A village community has a sense of pride and togetherness which we mustn’t lose”.
Second prize saw Darcy Lear scoop one of the digital cameras with her photo of Bowring park. The third and fourth prize went to Jake Perks (digital camera) and Christopher Bayliss (Ironbridge Gorge Museum tickets). All the photos are viewable on the Council’s Flickr page: www.flickr.com/photos/telford-wrekin.
The consultation received nearly 400 responses, these will now feed into the new Telford & Wrekin Local Development Plan – Shaping Places. Shaping Places will guide where new homes, jobs and green spaces are located in the borough over the next 15 years.
Findings from the consultation show that people really value the green nature of the borough; the most popular sites were Town Park and the Wrekin Hill.
When asked what made a great place to live people preferred green areas with good access to facilities. In terms of what businesses people felt would help Telford & Wrekin grow most people suggested manufacturing and small scale enterprises.
Councillor Charles Smith, cabinet member for Housing, Regeneration and Economic Development, Said: “ Shaping Places is about improving Telford and Wrekin making it a better place to live, work and visit.
“Most importantly, Shaping Places is about working co-operatively with local people to ensure that the Council understands and responds to the needs the community it serves; making a real positive difference to the lives of local people.
“To the local people who have taken part I would personally like to say thank you. Through local people’s comments we are now able to understand areas which the Council needs to focus on to improve the Borough.”
For further information about the Shaping Places plan see the Council’s website www.telford.gov.uk/shapingplaces.
