Community Planning Conference 2010

West Berkshire Councils Planning Policy Team meet Diane Smith from the Greenham's Future Team in the  market place.

An excellent, interesting day, with great networking opportunities. I have learnt a lot, thank you CCB for a well organised conference.  Caroline Stevenson Cold Ash Community Partnership

"I really enjoyed the brainstorming  roundtable workshop on youth and arts" Emma Samuel Project Manager for the Thatcham Vision

Chieveley Village Hall was packed out for this years Community Planning Conference organised by CCB with the support of the West Berkshire Partnership  on 6^th March .The Conference attracted 90 West Berkshire delegates from 23 communities and 17 local agencies . The aim of the day was to promote and celebrate the many successful community projects resulting from the development of community plans.

Elaine Cook, Chief Executive of CCB explained:

“Saturday’s conference was about communities and agencies making a real difference together. There is so much pressure on villages - with shops, post offices and pubs closing all the times.  This makes it more important than ever for communities to plan for the future and take up the chance to maximise future opportunities. Communities need a vision for their future – and this conference provided some really useful advice on how to make the vision a reality.”

Organiser Sarah Ward, CCB's Community Planning Development Worker designed an interesting day with workshops on some of the important ‘big issues’ communities are having to face in the coming years.  Topics such as the ageing community, the economic impact of the 2012 Olympics, funding sources and how to “green our communities" were hot topics.

 Robert Pattison Chair of the Cold Ash Greening Campaign shared how his community were trying to reduce their carbon footprint and a film made by young people from Aldworth about the past, present and future of their community was screened . Highlighting how the arts can be used to stimulate young people into thinking about where they live. The whole conference was creatively captured by artist Simon Jardine.

All documentation from the day has now been placed on the Community Planning Conference site.