This evening was the second meeting of the group that has come together to support the development and production of an Oswestry Town Plan.
The meeting was framed to find and agree a way to move the process forward, as the first meeting had held many, many questions about process, format, value, cost and so on.
We looked at how to make the process as cost-effective and valuable as possible. To that end, four different options or approaches had been outlined. Essentially, these involved - one way or another - making good use of the existing Oswestry Town Plan along with significant work already done Shropshire Council for the Local Development Framework, Shropshire Economic Statement, Shropshire Community Strategy and so on.
So lots of information to be drawn upon.
A new consultation method was also introduced as a possible means for consultation - this method was known as the "Rural Toolkit". Essentially, it contains a series of headed statements and then three or four questions which a facilitator can work through with a range of groups to identify issues, opportunities etc.
To move the process on, we decided it would be a good idea to look at bringing together all the various supporting information (as mentioned above) into one document which could provide the platform for further work. That is, we might identify gaps in it's assessment, perhaps opinions from groups yet to be garnered...
We looked at taking a Thematic Approach to the process, and ended with agreement on Economic, Environmental and Social - as the broad headings for the Brief for the consolidation work described above.
This Oswestry Town Plan is going on in the context of the Market Town Revitalisation work, so it's a good time to be doing both in parallel.
By the way, as a note for your diary, on 23rd Nov 2010 (6.30pm for 7pm) in the Memorial Hall, Oswestry, the key consultation workshop for the Market Town Revitalisation will be carried out. Everyone is welcome to share their views on the priorities for Oswestry. So please come along!
