Donald meets Hounslow Mayor
Since June, the stadium communications group have been attending local fairs in the area to spread the word about the stadium plans and to canvas opinions of those plans. The major events attended were Chiswick Fair, St. Margaret’s Fair, the Big Brentford Picnic and Kew Fayre. At each event, we had a stall with boards and display stands and we also distributed brochures, which allowed those interested to give us their details so we could keep them updated of developments throughout the planning process. We were made very welcome at all the locations and were given the opportunity to address the fair via the PA system to ensure everyone knew we were there!
There was a high level of interest in the stadium plans and, with only a few exceptions, the response to the plans was broadly positive. We were kept very busy answering questions on all aspects of the project, and the questions fell into four broad categories;
• firstly, where exactly was the new stadium going to be,
• secondly, how far advanced were the plans,
• thirdly, what consideration had been given to local transport issues,
• fourthly, when would it be built.
The interest in different aspects of the project varied across the fairs, with Chiswick and Kew residents being more keenly aware of the transport issues and being more concerned about the management of crowds on match days. The people attending the Big Brentford Picnic, which was held in St Pauls Recreation area, were concerned about the plans for Griffin Park once the football club had moved out. However, the plans for a more modern replacement for the Fountains Leisure Centre as part of the new stadium was welcomed by all those in all these local areas. As well as local families, we also had the opportunity to talk to the local police who manned the fairs and those local dignitaries who were there in a more official capacity, (see picture with Hounslow Mayor, Councillor Doctor Genevieve Hibbs).
We were commended for taking the plans to the fairs and so our willingness to engage with the community was hugely appreciated.
Overall, this exercise showed the stadium plans and those for Griffin Park and the Fountains site to the several thousand people who attended the fairs, and particularly the few hundred whom we talked to directly at the events. While fairly satisfied by this initiative, we all acknowledge that this barely scrapes the surface of the local population and all those who will be affected by the project and the new facilities planned around the stadium. We need to continue to find ways of engaging with this local constituency throughout the whole period between now and the realisation of the project’s ambition.
We also had a stall at the annual Hounslow Local Strategic Partnership conference where organisations from the public, private, voluntary and community sectors reviewed progress made in Hounslow over the previous year and considered future priorities. This was a major opportunity for us to discuss the stadium plans with many of the key decision makers and related organisations
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Community_Engagement_over_the_Summer.pdf
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