Vision of the town’s ‘reborn’ future
Ashbourne and District 50+ Forum
THOSE attending the Ashbourne and District 50+ Forum on July 15 were able to share the vision for an “Ashbourne Reborn” and for the implementation of a project to integrate almost all aspects of care for our health and wellbeing in Derbyshire.
Ashbourne Town Team’s vision was presented by Chris Webster, with contributions from Tim Challans and Chloe Gibson, with Tony Walker outlining the proposed work to create a community hub as part of the development at the Methodist Church.
They explained how the project had evolved from a desire to revitalise the centre of Ashbourne, thereby attracting more visitors and increasing prosperity, into a detailed proposal that could attract £15 million as part of the government’s levelling-up fund.
When realised, the plans will provide a vastly more attractive Market Place capable of hosting a variety of events, as well as improved pedestrian access with traffic calming measures in place in Dig Street and St John Street. It is hoped these schemes will also improve air quality.
The community hub will add much-needed facilities for performance and community groups.
A lively Q&A session challenged the speakers with ‘How will HGVS be compatible with the traffic calming?’ Answer: It is hoped that HGVS will
choose a different, easier, route, and ‘what if the government says no?’ Answer: There may be other funding streams that will allow aspects of the project to proceed over a period of time.
Following a coffee break, the second part of the meeting was a presentation led by Kate Brown – director of Joint Commissioning and Community Development for Derby & Derbyshire Integrated Care Board.
The importance of “joining up” the various organisations (state and voluntary) that exist to improve our
health and wellbeing has been longestablished. This initiative is clearly the most ambitious yet.
The particular “group” that will oversee these changes in Ashbourne is called the Derbyshire Dales Local Integrated Group (DDLIG) and Jo Finnegan, Place Lead for Derbyshire Dales on the Derby & Derbyshire Integrated Care Board, explained the detail on this.
Again questions from the audience probed what this new group would be able to achieve for Ashbourne residents. With the group still establishing itself, it was not possible for them to provide promises as to when better use could be made of St Oswald’s Hospital or when we might see shorter queues at Boots and Lloyds, but it was encouraging to see our problems recognised and know that there was now a single body charged with trying to make services as good as they should be.
Stalls from East Midlands Ambulance Trust, Derbyshire Carers Association and Platform Housing were present answering lots of questions and also supplying some useful ‘freebies’!
Ashbourne and District 50+ Forum provide and share information on a variety of topics – information that is often not always readily or easily available. It provides a platform for speakers and allows residents to be able to challenge them.
We welcome residents to all our open forums and also to increase the number of committee members so we can continue to provide speakers who can be held accountable to the town.