Charlbury's heritage - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! (Neighbourhood Plan)

Sat 5 Aug 2017, 23:29 (last edited on Wed 9 Aug 2017, 19:28)

As you may know, a Neighbourhood Plan is currently being written for Charlbury. One important aim will be to protect and conserve Charlbury's fine heritage of buildings and landscapes. The Neighbourhood Plan will include an outline history of the town's development and an assessment of its distinctive character. From these, policies will be devised to conserve and enhance Charlbury's character and appearance and to help integrate new development successfully into the existing fabric of the town and its surroundings.

To carry out the character assessment, we need to recruit a group of enthusiastic and committed volunteers. We are intending to employ a consultant to lead the assessment but we are hoping that interested and knowledgeable local people (of which Charlbury has lots!) will play a major part. This is important as a Neighbourhood Plan should reflect the perceptions, priorities and aspirations of the people who live in the place.

Specialist knowledge is not needed for the assessment but you should have a keen interest in Charlbury's history and buildings, a good eye for street-scape and enough time to complete your part of the task. The idea is that our consultant will lead a training workshop, probably in September, to equip the volunteers for the task of assessing different parts of the town/parish in small groups using a specially-designed 'tool-kit'. By dividing Charlbury up into smaller character areas, it will be possible for groups of volunteers to take on only as much as they wish or have time for.

We hope that the work we do will not only support the Neighbourhood Plan but also provide information for a variety of purposes of value and interest to Charlbury, its residents and the wider world. It should also be good fun!

To express an interest in helping or to just to find out more, please e mail Juliet West or Claire Wilding on charassescharl@gmail.com putting Character Assessment in the subject line, as soon as possible.