With Frome Town Council set to take over responsibility for the play areas at Tower View and Packsaddle, work is underway to draw up long term plans for both spaces – and at the same time Town Council Staff are organising a local vote so the town can decide how £15,000 should be spent on play in these areas next year.
Frome Town Council is introducing Participatory Budgeting (PB) next year to encourage local people to make choices about how local money is spent. And one of the schemes that will come under the umbrella of PB is the play areas at Packsaddle & Tower View.
“We don’t quite look after these play areas just yet!” said Chris Stringer, the Council’s Environment Manager. “But the final legal proceedings are being prepared – and these could be sorted and signed any day now.”
“And with this in mind we’ve already agreed to spend £7,500 at Tower View and the same amount at Packsaddle as part of the Council’s move to Participatory Budgeting next year. We’re currently working on plans for both sites, but would really like to know how these sites are used by the community – so we’ve drawn up some questionnaires we hope people will fill us in to help us understand more about what the community wants. Essentially, we’ve drawn up 3 plans for the spaces and we want the public to vote on which they prefer. The voting options will be very similar at both spaces: spend the whole of the £7,500 on play equipment; or spend some money on play equipment, but add in some play sessions throughout the year”
You can get involved now by filling in questionnaires about the play areas and about play generally. “We’ll use the completed questionnaires to help prepare long term plans for both play areas – and then we’ll use the long term plans to decide what sort of play equipment is offered in the public vote.”
Electronic questionnaires are available at www.frometowncouncil.gov.uk; while paper copies are available to collect from the Council’s Palmer Street office and the Tourist Information point in the library.
This will be one of three Participatory Budgeting votes in the town next year as the Town Council changes how public money is spent in Frome. You can find out more about Participatory Budgeting at www.frometowncouncil.gov.uk – where you’ll also be able to view the long-term plans and voting options for Tower View and Packsaddle early in January.
Contact Chris Stringer stringerc@frometowncouncil.gov.uk for more information.
