Church leaders from Wellington joined forces with Knightstone and Magna housing associations to host a special event in the heart of one of Wellington’s extensive new housing estates, Cades Farm this weekend in a bid to raise community spirit, as Shona Stone from Knighstone explains:
"There are some people in the community who would like things to happen and we are trying to facilitate this and consult with the local people to see what they want."
There are concerns that with little provision of facilities on some of our new housing estates there are few opportunities for the community to meet at events or during their day to day lives and events like this one are helping to address the situation. Conscious of the issues Rebecca Pow, Prospective MP for Taunton Deane, went along to the event to find out what was happening for herself:
"There is a proven need for new housing in the area but we must somehow try to ensure that we include shops, meeting places for events, sports areas and all the other facilities necessary so that people can get out and meet one another. If we don’t do this our housing estates are in danger of becoming ghettos where no one knows one another, where we are totally reliant on the car to get to shops and activities and where it is hard to create any kind of community spirit Which will benefit everyone because people will feel happier and will ultimately be healthier."
Chairman of the local Wellington churches group, John Salter, supports this:
"Many people are happy here but we are trying to raise awareness of the local services that are available in Wellington and at the same time trying to engender some community spirit."