From Hollywood to Portaferry, Bangor to Ballygowan, the big conversation about community planning has started in Ards and North Down.
You can get involved now by telling the community planning partnership what you think about the area. They want to hear your likes and dislikes about living in Ards and North Down. What are the issues in the area that you want treated as priorities for the future?
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Anna and Emily McBrien help mum Jane, dad Patrick and grandmother Veronica McBrien to post their feedback in the Big Conversation post box at Bangor Library[/caption]
In Ards and North Down lots of organisations are involved in providing services that improve standards of living in our local communities. Community planning is about joining up the efforts of these public sector, business, voluntary and community organisations and making sure they are working with local people towards a common goal of improving all aspects of community life. It will help public agencies work together and with the wider community to plan and deliver better services. While Ards and North Down Borough Council is leading the community planning process, it will be more than a council plan. It will be a plan for the Borough that outlines how all of the partners will work together to achieve results that they couldn’t achieve on their own. The plan will cover the next 15 years, but will also contain goals for the next four years to help track our progress. Julie Reid from Libraries NI commented: “With six libraries in the Ards and North Down area, Libraries NI is widely used by a wide range of people of all ages. We are delighted to be part of the community planning partnership and keen to understand the issues that affect local people. We look forward to working with our community planning partners to look at how we can provide integrated services.” Ards and North Down Community Planning Partnership needs your help to identify the priorities that the community plan should seek to address. They will be working hard over the next year to identify what these will be, seeking to actively engage with as many people and organisations as possible to gather evidence on the issues that should be prioritised. You can stay up-to-date with Ards and North Down’s Big Conversation by following #ANDbigconversation on Twitter and you can and provide your feedback directly by completing an online postcard at:
www.ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk/community-planning You can also pick up and return Big Conversation postcards at Ards and North Down Borough Council offices at Church Street, Newtownards, Bangor Town Hall and at libraries across the Borough until January. Further locations will be added in the New Year.
The following organisations are members of the Ards and North Down Community Planning Partnership:
§ Ards and North Down Borough Council § Council for Catholic Maintained Schools § The Education Authority § Health and Social Care Board § The Health and Social Care Trusts § Invest Northern Ireland § Libraries NI § Police Service of Northern Ireland § Public Health Agency § Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service § Northern Ireland Housing Executive § Sport NI § Tourism NI.
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