Don’t miss Follaton’s 1st Community Assembly this Sunday 8th Feb!

Sunday 8th Feb will see the first Community Assembly held in Follaton’s Community Hall 1-4pm and the 6th Community Assembly held in the Totnes area as part of the series being run by Totnes Area Community Assembly a group which has surveyed over 1000 people and attracted over 450 people to its meet-ups so far.

As featured before in Totnes Pulse, Community Assemblies offer spaces where neighbours can meet, everyone gets an equal chance to speak and where we truly listen to each other. A magical process happens when people from very different backgrounds, who may even see themselves as on opposite sides of an issue, come together and realise we all have more in common than we think. Through well facilitated discussion in groups of six which then report back to the whole assembly, Community Assemblies are bringing out the wisdom of our community, building a stronger, shared voice and vehicle for real community action.

Community Assembly in this area

Prior to the Follaton meeting the latest was held in Dartington, packing out the Village Hall with over 60 attendees. The Dartington Community Assembly was attended by 5 Parish Councillors who were there to listen only, and will inform the Parish Council’s priorities. The Dartington Assembly called for free community meeting spaces and better spaces for people to come together, amongst a range of other issues including housing and traffic.

As well as these meet-ups, teams of volunteers have been out most days, speaking with neighbours who enthusiastically share their priorities and ideas, with issues such as traffic, public transport, parking, river pollution and declining local services (e.g. banks and dentists) featuring strongly, though the clear top issue across all the assemblies and surveys so far is housing.

The next Assembly, on Sunday 8th Feb will be the first held in Follaton’s Community Hall 1-4pm. As always, all are welcome, including children with their parents/responsible adults. The response from Follaton neighbours has been the most positive of any area so far, whether it be those who moved onto Follaton estate 40 years ago or 4 months ago.

“It’s great to see people taking the time to come and speak with us and invite us to the meeting, I’m really looking forward to it. I hope together we can then improve the kids play area.” said Mark, father of three on Whiteley Ave.

Tickets for all events and further info can be found at www.timetoassemble.org/totnes Totnes Community Assembly are on Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky