The council is introducing a new approach to working with Ealing’s residents and communities. This new approach will introduce a town forum model in the seven towns of: Acton, Ealing, Greenford, Hanwell, Northolt, Perivale and Southall. The commitment to establishing town forums is outlined in the Council Plan 2022 to 2026.
The council has listened to residents and knows it needs to do more to be a listening council that effectively engages with residents, to better inform service design and delivery in neighbourhoods. It also needs to work harder to ensure all voices can be heard and express their views about the issues, challenges and solutions that are important to them.
By understanding residents’ issues better, we can focus on the root causes of inequality and disadvantage. Residents know their communities and what they need better than anyone else.
How will town forums work?
The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of local towns and the crucial support they provide for the neighbourhoods that surround them. This means bringing people together to build strong neighbourhoods, empowering volunteers, encouraging community activism, engaging civic and faith leaders, and delivering well-loved community facilities and services.
We want to engage and work with as many residents, community, voluntary and faith groups as possible and with all ages and background. Together we can tackle local issues and challenges. We believe our towns will benefit from the richness of ideas and solutions so that the sum of our collective input is better than our individual actions.
We know our communities are different with their own character and needs, so a town forum model in one town may be different in another. What is important is that a town forum has local buy-in and consensus.
During April and May 2023, the council will start working with our residents, voluntary and faith organisations, and anyone with a stake in their neighbourhoods, about getting involved, designing what a town forum model would look like.
Funding for local projects and initiatives will be available from budgets that were traditionally allocated at ward level, which have been brought together to town level.
There will be many ways to get involved, have your say and participate and we will soon provide further details about how you can do so.
Visit Your Voice, Your Town to find more information on how the council is working with residents to build an engagement model to connect communities to the council about their town and the next steps on how to get involved.