Market Drayton residents will have their first chance to be involved in plotting the town’s future at a public meeting next week.
Town and Shropshire councillors, along with Community Council of Shropshire representatives, will also be at the meeting next Monday to discuss the development of a town plan for Market Drayton over the next 10 years.
It takes place at the Festival Drayton Centre on October 12 at 7.30pm and will be chaired by Market Drayton mayor Councillor Roy Aldcroft.
He said: “The town plan is about Market Drayton and it’s an opportunity for members of the community, whether they represent an organisation or themselves, to be involved in the future of Market Drayton.
“It will certainly not be a one-off meeting and we estimate that it’ll take two years to complete this particular project, during which a questionnaire will go to all residents within the town to seek their views.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to prioritise the answers and feed them into Shropshire Council’s plan for the area and the town council’s plans for the development of Market Drayton.”
The idea for a town plan first emerged at a Chamber of Trade meeting seven months ago and was followed by a meeting in April with representatives from voluntary groups in the town, as well as church and business leaders.
Councillor Aldcroft said he hoped a steering group would be formed after Monday’s meeting and a “draft plan” ready to present to residents next October.
“I’m pretty confident that the community recognises the importance of having a structure in place for the future of the town and there are organisations that are already involved with that,” he said.
“But it would be nice to see a lot more of the town’s people taking part and that’s the idea of this meeting.
“There have been a number of occasions where members of the public have been surprised to find out that some form of project is taking place and the shout is ‘we didn’t know anything about it’.
“This type of meeting is designed to ensure that they do know about it and have ownership of what’s happening in their town.”
