A plan is being developed to ask the people of Penrith and the surrounding area what they believe would be good for the town in the future.
The idea of such a survey emerged at an online meeting of the Evolve Penrith group, which was set up by town councillor and businessman Jonathan Davies with the aim of developing a community plan for Penrith covering issues including housing provision, job creation, the environment and the appearance of the locality.
The open to all meeting — held on Wednesday and attended by six people — heard the survey proposal come from Lesley Hunter, who suggested that a platform such as SurveyMonkey could be used to find out what the people of Penrith really want.
Support came from Heather Thompson and pharmacist Phil Caton, who said it would be good to get people re-engaged with the future of Penrith, since many no longer trusted local councils.
Mr Caton also suggested that a paper version of the survey could be distributed, with businesses in the town acting as distribution and collection points.
It was agreed that two questions would be devised by each person involved in the meeting to act as a basis for the survey.
The many other topics discussed included traffic flow, two-hour parking in the town centre, the need for better pedestrian links between large car parks and the major shopping areas, and ways of making use of vacant units in the New Squares.
On New Squares, Eden district councillor Kevin Beaty said that when he was leader of the authority he had favoured moving the council’s offices into the development and selling off or letting Mansion House.
He added that he had also been involved in negotiations to site an information centre and transport hub in New Squares, with a pedestrian link to it from the railway station through Castle Park.
Closing the meeting, Mr Davies said he will come up with dates for future virtual meetings of Evolve Penrith, and that he hopes to get more town bodies involved.
