Love Brentford?

Community Council says local people should respond to new survey on town's future

Ever feel like no-one listens to what the residents of Brentford actually want? 

Brentford Community Council, the independent group that endeavors to provide a representative voice for Brentford people on issues that affect and concern their lives, has decided to do something about this dearth and launch the biggest (and possibly the smallest) ever survey of the Brentford area.  Carried out by the community group with funding from London Borough of Hounslow the postcard is about to fall through every letterbox in the TW8 area.   The postcard-sized survey, "Love Brentford" asks just seven short questions.

Stephen Brown, Chair of Brentford Community Council, said:
“There are many channels for decision-makers to hear local peoples’ views.  Yet somehow the aspirations of the people of Brentford become blurred by the immense amount of detail that underpins these attempts to engage and the focus is lost.  Possibly also such exercises appeal only to a minority of people: for the majority - the very people whose views it is vital to canvass – they are turn-off.

"We hope that, by being brief with a freepost reply address, the postcard survey will get a response from people who don't normally complete surveys.  We’ll then have a much more rounded understanding of the aspirations and priorities the various people of Brentford have for the town’s future. Everyone in Brentford knows what needs to be done for the town, but this will give and edge to which priorities matter most: it will be a bugle call to the Council and other partners to focus on the most urgent and a mandate to them to push these things through.”

For those ‘survey monkeys’ out there the longer survey can still be completed online at the Brentford Community Council website at http://www.brentfordcc.org.uk/joomla/index.php (on the top right of the home page)

November 10, 2010