Your ideas for building a stronger future

Use a variety of providers to house homeless people

Use a variety of providers to house the homeless. One size doesn’t fit all and people will get better outcomes if a number of providers offer accommodation and the associated support. People can then be offered more or less support as needed individually. Introducing competition between providers will drive the quality of services up.

We need to 'rewild' rather than build

It was wonderful to see nature thrive once people stayed off the roads and there was less pollution from other sources. We all saw the benefits to people's physical and mental health of local natural spaces too. We need to 'rewild' where we can, an example would be Knights Grange golf course, let it become a nature reserve with native flora and fauna.(see the amazing book 'Wilding' by Isabella Tree for how this works in practice to improve the environment)

Improve City Centre

Provide free parking to encourage people to visit the city Centre. Support local businesses by keeping rents low

Publicise the climate and biodiversity crisis

CWaC should use its influence and capacity to publicise the need to change our lifestyles, including in schools, colleges and universities. For example, reducing car use, reducing meat consumption, avoiding flying, re-using and passing on clothes, reducing energy use, insulating buildings and many more. These are the things that are destroying civilisation (see e.g. https://www.resilience.org/stories/2020-06-08/collapse-of-civilisation-is-the-most-likely-outcome-top-climate-scientists/). We are in a climate emergency (and a biodiversity one) and CWaC has acknowledged this and declared it is going to take urgent action. CWaC can't do it alone. Every person must play their part, and the excuse of 'I didn't know' has never been acceptable and cannot be now.

Fund Ideas First -stop tying money up in Council salaries

Communities have many local groups/activities that do amazing things. Small amounts of funding help them keep going & do more. The public sector ties funding up in staff salaries at the expense of growing community capacity. Communities know best what works in their area

Covid has shown we can take care of people. No more homeless on our streets invest in solutions that work for them and our community.

Support local enterprises

The Council needs to have real experts who can offer effective practical advice to assist local enterprises to grow and develop

Concentrate on environmental issues - look forward for future generations

Allow grass verges to grow and invest in wild flower seeds rather than mowing them down. This will encourage insect and birds to thrive. Rotherham Council have planted 8 miles of wild flower verges saving £25K in mowing costs!

Make use of the largenumber of empty shops in our town centres to provide places where people can meet up to share interests and activities.

Bring together volunteers and people who need support to get out and about to make this open to all and help reduce loneliness as well as bringing town centres to life again.

Drive inward sustainable investment in Cheshire West valuing people, community ownership, participatory democracy, and place.

Community Wealth Building (Preston Model)

Just do something

One of the better aspects of the pandemic has been people looking out for neighbours and offering help. Sometimes we can all be too backwards at asking for, or offering help from friends and neighbours. So many things that sounds small add up to bigger things. We can't all do eveything, but we should all try to: support local shops, restaurants, cafes and pubs, vote, give blood, recycle, home compost, walk or cycle short journeys, pick up some roadside litter ocasionally, talk to people, join a local group or society and so on.

More supported volunteering

The Council needs to invest more in volunteer organisers, for example Green Space Rangers so that more volunteer hours can be effectively managed. This will have the added benefit of reducing demand on health and social care are members of the community will also have improved health and wellbeing