Principles met

  • We will explore ways for councils to act as a platform for helping the community to contribute to local outcomes, and to re-think the role of councillors as community connectors, brokers and leaders.
  • We will promote community-based approaches to economic development that focus on supporting the creation of jobs, social enterprises and other businesses and providing an environment for co-operative and mutual enterprises to thrive.
  • In exploring new ways of meeting the priority needs of our communities we will encourage models, such as co-operatives and mutuals, which give greater influence and voice to staff and users. in designing and commissioning public services and in determining the use of public resources.

The Covid-19 pandemic brought the Polesworth community together to help one another in the most difficult of times. As the country locked down, Polesworth stepped up. Within a matter of days of the first national lockdown, a call was put out for volunteers and one by one, over 70 people turned up in masks to register at the Parish Council’s Tithe Barn with their ID and volunteer sign up form.

Within a matter of a couple of weeks, the Tithe Barn had been transformed into a community shop – The Polesworth Food Hub. This wasn’t the council doing something, it was the council, the community and local businesses cooperating that made this happen. Volunteers used their contacts and connections to find fridges, freezers, suppliers, and volunteers to help run a weekly food hub. Users were asked to pay what they could afford with the Parish Council providing the venue, businesses providing goods and the Borough Council contributing thousands of pounds in grants to make it all happen.

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