Stakeholder Meeting
27 September 2022
September’s stakeholder meeting saw over 30 residents, business owners and community group representatives gather at The Lights for an interesting evening of updates from Vision partners.
Following a warm welcome from the Vision Chair Cllr Phil North, the meeting was opened with updates from stakeholders.
We heard from Steve Godwin of Andover BID about their ongoing work in the town, the great benefits of the events in Andover Town Centre and the positive impacts this has on Andover businesses. Katherine Bird followed this with an update on A-Fest 2022 which was a huge success and involved over 30 stalls and businesses showcasing their offer for young people in Andover.
Louisa Rice updated the stakeholders on the Cultural Sharing Forum in Andover. The Cultural Sharing Forum began with an initial meeting in January to understand how best to celebrate the diversity of the people living in Andover. Family workshops were then held called Faces of Andover; a fun digital self-portrait activity run in partnership with the group Common. The workshops aimed to engage a culturally diverse demographic and promote intercultural conversation by using creative digital arts to enable people to tell stories about their experiences, perceptions and visions for the future. Building on these events, the CSF now meet once a month and members have created their own structure for meetings and have also created mission statements for what the forum should aim to achieve and what it means to them.
Finally, we heard from Jamie Hill about Andover’s Climate Day of Action. The Climate Day of Action ran alongside the Great Big Green Week and included lots of activities and events, from the Vegan Market to Coffee and Cake at the Unity Allotment. The week was a great success with stakeholders across the town taking small steps to support the planet.
The first of two substantial items on the agenda was the Andover Youth Assembly. This took place in July of this year and saw young people from across Andover come together to engage in discussions about what life is like for young people in Andover, and what can be done to improve this. Stakeholders heard the 6 priority statements that the young people agreed on, before diving into discussions about how partners and stakeholders could come together to tackle some of the issues that the Youth Assembly identified.
The final item on the agenda was an update from Paul Ramshaw and Fenella Griffin on the Andover Masterplan and Public Realm work. Fenella introduced the stakeholders to some of the specific ideas around the key areas of work, giving all of those in attendance a flavour of what the future Andover could look and feel like.
Thank you to everyone who attended, it was a great evening and lovely to see so many of you there. For more information about any of our stakeholders' updates, or if you would like to get involved, email andovervision@testvalley.gov.uk. We look forward to seeing you again soon!