Wiltshire Council wants your ideas

People across Wiltshire are turning their ideas into reality and making their communities better and stronger places in which to live and work.

Wiltshire Council is committed to helping residents create and sustain a strong sense of community spirit and involvement. It wants to encourage and support local communities to get involved and work with the council to deal with local challenges.

As part of an ongoing campaign to capture local ideas from local people, Wiltshire Council is asking ‘what’s your idea?’ Already people across the county are seeing their ideas become reality with help from the council and its partners.

Some ideas which have already made a difference are:

- The people of Calne set up a community hub for local people which was provided rent free for the first year

- Older residents in Malmesbury kept their local bus stop open

- Cricklade Leisure Centre gardeners improved the children and young people’s garden, designed by local school children

- New and more efficient fridges and better shelving were put into the Kington St Michael community shop

- Westbury and District Cricket Club put in new nets

- Amesbury town council provided new play equipment at Harvard Park

John Thomson, cabinet member for communities, said: "We firmly believe strong communities can cope with changing and challenging circumstances and they will often find their own solutions to many of the problems they face. Part of this is ensuring communities have their say and feel able to influence their local council and other public service organisations in the work we do and the decisions we make.

"We recognise some people have, over time, become disengaged from their communities and local democracy. In Wiltshire we have encouraged local residents to get involved with community issues through area partnerships and area boards. This has resulted in real benefits including an increase in the number of residents involved in voluntary activity and funding available for local community projects."

For more information, or to tell the council about an idea, visit www.wiltshire.gov.uk/whatsyouridea or email whatsyouridea@wiltshire.gov.uk. Alternatively contact the local area board manager who can advise how to progress any ideas and explain different funding options.