The next Southern Area Community Engagement Forum will focus on the actions communities themselves can take to help tackle speeding motorists.  This follows concerns raised at the last Forum meeting about road safety issues in the area.

The Community Engagement Forum will be held at Thorpe Willoughby Village Hall on Thursday 11 February, starting at 7pm.  Everyone who lives in the area covered by the Forum, which includes the villages from Hambleton to Drax and from Burn to Kirk Smeaton, can come along and have their say directly to the organisations in charge of local services.

At the previous Forum a number of residents raised issues about safety along the A19 through the area, with many specifically worried about speeding through villages.  In response, this next meeting will focus on how these issues can be taken forward and solutions investigated.  The meeting will look at how local residents themselves can play a role in taking positive action to combat the problem.  Representatives from the Police and Fire Service will be at the meeting, along with highways chiefs.  The Forum brings together these organisations, alongside Selby District Council and local parish councils.

Chair of the Southern Area Community Engagement Forum and Selby District Councillor, Cliff Lunn, said, "This Community Engagement Forum gives people a chance to have their say about any issue that affects their local community and, importantly, help to come up with solutions to these issues.  Since the Forum was created last autumn the key concern emerging is around road safety, and speeding in particular.  That's why we're now taking forward this work to see where action needs to be taken and what action can be taken.

"This isn't about us dictating to residents what we think needs to happen - this is about residents themselves identifying the problems and helping to deliver the solutions.  By working together like this we can make real and lasting changes for local communities."

The Southern Area Community Engagement Forum is the second such group to be set up in the Selby district, following the Tadcaster and Villages Community Engagement Forum.  Over the coming months new Engagement Forums will be created to cover the whole of the Selby district.  This is part of an ongoing commitment from all of the organisations involved to consult with residents about their local services and respond to the needs of individual communities.  The Forums are facilitated by Selby District Council and support the authority's priority this year to facilitate input through community engagement.

More information about Community Engagement Forums can be found here.