Update on the Bath and Bathavon Area Forums
The formats of the Bath and Bathavon Area Forums are currently being reviewed whilst we identify how best to work with local communities in those areas.
The Bath Area Forum had provided some useful opportunities for the council and other agencies to give out information and consult on schemes. However, the feedback we have received is that “top-down” meetings of this sort are not the best way of listening to local residents’ views.
So we are currently drawing up proposals for engagement across Bath and Bathavon which are built around our local communities, and which involve more direct feedback from residents.
We expect that this will take the form a listening roadshow, to be run on a trial basis, in communities across the Bath and Bathavon areas. These will also shape how we engage in the future.
This approach will be tailored to the particular areas and communities that make up Bath and Bathavon rather than a “one size fits all” approach. It will also be built around listening to the priorities that people raise with us, rather than council and agency agendas.
We have had feedback that the Keynsham Area, Somer Valley and Chew Valley Forums are working well and will be continuing in their current forms. For more information on the work of these forums please see here.
Bath and Bathavon have vibrant and diverse communities and our engagement approach needs to reflect this. For example, in Bath we will continue to work with residents’ groups including FOBRA as well as with our student residents through the Student Community Partnership. We will also continue to work closely with parish councils in the Bathavon area.
We will provide further updates but in the meantime if you have any suggestions on this please contact connecting_communities@bathnes.gov.uk .
For issues that had previously required direct responses from these Forums, such as consultations, information will continue to be circulated directly to seek feedback.
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