Following on from the extraordinary meeting on 12th April, over 50 members of the community have stepped forward to volunteer their time towards initiatives to support our village centre.
A focus group of 10 members (with representatives from businesses, the community, and the Parish Council) have met to form an independent Ruddington Village Centre Partnership (Retail Growth Forum) to discuss the next steps and generate a plan of action.
“The response from villagers offering to help has been very encouraging and this steering group will do its best to identify the short term and long term actions people can take to help regenerate the village centre” said Parish Councillor Ian Wilson.
We have a great community spirit and whilst it will take time to work through all of the ideas, it was clear that we need to prioritise and do a great job, rather than rushing something through half-heartedly.
The immediate priorities for us are to:
- Create a “Shop Local” campaign which will raise awareness of local businesses to all residents and visitors
- Engage with local businesses to generate a loyalty shopper scheme
- Talk to more residents and visitors about what they would like from the shopping area
- Pursue a parking approach which meets the needs of the village centre, this is likely to be different on different streets.
The focus group will meet again on 14th May, with a wider group meeting involving all 50 plus volunteers will happen shortly after.
If you’d like to volunteer to help with this initiative, please contact the Parish Council office at office@ruddingtonparishcouncil.gov.uk or call 0115 914 6660.
Janice Moore