Community conversations are continuing in Bere Alston this month, with the final session taking place this Saturday (March 25).

Hosted by the Bere Alston Regeneration Partnership, community conversations have been running throughout the month at the Parish Hall, where residents are welcome to come along and explore the issues that are important to them, discuss ways of working to make Bere Alston a better place to live and have their say in contributing to the future of the village. To help build a picture of what is important to the community, residents are also encouraged to discuss their favourite thing about living in the village when attending.

Five themes were created for the different sessions, one a week every Saturday, with additional drop in sessions for those unable to make the main sessions. So far, there discussion sessions have centered on art, culture and heritage, education and employment and regeneration. The final session will focus on both sport, health and leisure, and spaces, places and facilities, taking place from 12-2pm again in meeting room one of the Parish Hall Annex.

Chair of Beregen Isabel Saxby said: ‘Sessions have gone well so far and I’d always like to see more people join in. People we’ve had attend so far are so engaged with the community; we’ve discussed topics like litter, connecting the many groups we have, reducing unemployment and the possibility of live music in the hall.

‘All I can say is that this is our community, we all live here, so please come and make your voice heard. The greater insight we get from higher turnout, the more we can get in targeted funding for the areas people wish to see improved.

‘We’ll be running a separate event for young people in May so they can have their say too.’