COUNCILLORS in Westbury are looking for more people to take part in shaping the town’s neighbourhood plan.

They are particularly keen to take on volunteers who are willing to talk to the town’s schools and businesses to gather evidence for the plan.

Westbury Town Council says the neighbourhood plan could shape the town’s future for years to come.

Project co-ordinator Phil McMullen said: “We are making good progress and are hoping to start drafting the plan by the beginning of next year.

“The people working on the neighbourhood plan are a good group of people and they have got the shared vision.”

Mr McMullen, 61, said the neighbourhood plan will be a way for people to decide the future of where they live and work.

It will cover employment, the economy, education and the arts; the environment; health, leisure and wellbeing; design, development and housing; heritage, and transport.

Mr McMullen added: “A neighbourhood plan cannot block development, but it can help control it. The neighbourhood plan is not only limited to the development of housing.

“It can be used to develop a shared vision for the neighbourhood: choose where new homes, shops, offices and other development should be built; identify and protect important local green spaces; influence what new buildings should look like.

“Once approved, the plan will have legal force in setting out what development is acceptable in Westbury and for what reasons. Developers and local authority planners will have to take notice of it.

“Without a neighbourhood plan, we will have little control over any development that takes place and will receive less community funds from those developments.”If you’d like to get involved, contact the team on 01373 822 232.