West Oxfordshire District Council ask residents for their views on the future of West Oxfordshire
West Oxfordshire District Council has opened the ‘Your Voice Counts’ consultation today which asks residents from across the district to let the Council know what to focus on over the coming years.
Councillor Duncan Enright, Deputy Leader of the Council, said, “We are committed to West Oxfordshire District Council being your Council - putting residents at the heart of all we do.
“We are currently setting our priorities for what the Council should focus its resources on over the coming years in a new Council Plan, and we are also about to start the process of refreshing our Local Plan which is a document that sets out all future growth and development for the area.
“Both of these documents will have long lasting impacts on the District and all the people who live and work here, so we want residents' views on where they think we should focus our resources.
“We have many challenges to face as a community in West Oxfordshire; whether that be the affordability of housing, the cost of living crisis, tackling the climate emergency or preventing sewage entering our waterways among many other things.
“While we would solve every problem if we could, we have limited resources and so we want people to tell us what they want us to work on first, and where their council tax should go, alongside delivering the 50+ services we run every day.
“We are using a new digital platform for this consultation that we hope will be more interesting and engaging for people to use as part of our commitment to being more transparent and open.
“I look forward to hearing people's views and would encourage everyone in the district of any age to take part in the consultation.”
The consultation is open from 24 August to 21 September and residents can give feedback by visiting the new consultation platform hosted on the digital engagement platform CommonPlace - yourvoicecounts.commonplace.is
Residents unable to comment online will be able to access the questionnaire either in the Council offices in Welch Way, Witney or in a local library.
The feedback will be used to help shape the Council's new ‘Council Plan’ which will set out the key priorities for the Council. It will also be used in the very early stage of a review of the Council’s Local Plan.
This will be the first time West Oxfordshire District Council has consulted residents at the very early stage of the Council Plan and Local Plan to get their views on what the strategic focus of these documents should be.