The Town Council has set up a working group to look at facilitating a Town Plan for Wilmslow.
A Town Plan is intended to be an evolving document which is put together by residents of the town and sets out a vision for the town, usually for the next ten years.
Whilst councillors are normally involved, the steering group, which would drive this process, would be independent of Wilmslow Town Council.
Town plans should bring together the views, needs and opinions of the whole community and contain specific goals, identified by residents, covering a number of issues within the town, such as: planning, retail facilities, transport, parking, health services and youth facilities.
Whilst town plans have no legal status, a successful one can influence local government processes.
There is no set format, it is up to each community to define the issues to be tackled by its own, unique town plan and the whole process can take several years. It usually starts with an extensive questionnaire which is sent to every resident and business in the town, followed by public consultations and exhibitions.
Cllr Ruth McNulty, Cllr Christopher Dodson and Town Clerk Matthew Jackson recently received a presentation from representives of Cheshire East Council, including Sarah Baron who has a lot of experience in the writing of town plans.
Cllr McNulty told her fellow councillors at this week's meeting that the presentation "very helpfully outlined the potential scope".
She added "The idea is that the Town Plan would not be written by us but by a group of volunteer stakeholders. What is critical to getting it up and running is how you recruit your volunteers. The feeling from the experience of Knutsford is that you need a group of people with different skills and competencies.
"The conclusion we came to was to use the last presentation of the Wilmslow Vision Group and Stakeholder Panel, which will come to a close at the end of March, to ask volunteers to come forward and complete a skills audit so we can demonstrate we have people with appropriate skills to drive it.
"We should get this up and running as soon as we can so the Town Plan doesn't get left behind in any decisions being made in Wilmslow."
Cllr Christopher Dodson commented "As I understand it town plans take a considerable time to prepare. The one for Knutsford took over 3 years and the town has half the population of Wilmslow.
"I'm still hazy about what the Wilmslow Vision is but it seems to me it is being proposed at a hastier pace."
Cllr Jim Crockett, Chairman of Wilmslow Town Council, responded "The Town Plan should have been done twelve to fifteen months ago, so we had it in place before we got involved in the Wilmslow Town Vision Project and Stakeholder Panel. It has come at a bad time but we need to make the most of it."
Matthew Jackson added "The reason we should work towards dovetailing on Wilmslow Vision is because it is felt that the public consultation coming up will fuel some ideas that can then be expanded upon by the Town Plan - which would then go a lot further and a questionnaire would be circulated to the whole town."
Cllr McNulty added "This will be the widest possible consultation."
