PEOPLE in Petersfield have been handed the opportunity to help shape the town's future. It came in the form of an exhibition on Saturday at the library hosted by Petersfield Tomorrow. The display invited visitors to 'design your own future' and information was presented on boards and power point displays with ideas for future development of the town, based on what is there and what resources may be available to improve the area. To highlight possible options, Petersfield was divided up into 25 sections as part of the Town Design Statement, and more than 130 people turned out to examine the plans at the event held upstairs at the library, off The Square. Town Character Group chairman Vincent Edberg said: "It was very successful. We showed all 25 area summaries so people could read them. Auxiliary information explaining the Town Design Statement was also on display. "Quite a lot of comment forms were returned as well, so we were quite happy with that. There was a power point display to say what we are trying to do and what the process is about. The committee members were all there to help people along and explain things. "We are writing the Town Design Statement based on public information we are collecting. We started on proposing what we plan." The statement hopes to utilise what is available and what is there already in select areas, and each area has its own specific recommendations and information on how well they are already developed. The idea is to amend those summaries after comments from the exhibition are collated and taken into consideration. The group aims to eventually get the Town Design Statement draft ready for a public consultation later this year. "That is the right way to do it, so everybody has a say," said Mr Edberg who, following Saturday's exhibition, has many more comments to analyse in helping to shape the final statement. Mr Edberg added: "The major thing about people that came was that they had not just come in off the street, but because they had seen the article in The Herald, and they came in with a purpose and they wanted to contribute, so that was a positive." The main aims of the Town Design Statement, which reflects the views of the local community, are to: n Assist in improving town facilities for all age groups; n Provide guidance to landowners, developers and architects before they prepare proposals; n Improve the quality new development by making it easier for the planning authorities to seek improvements in applications; n Raising local awareness on local design and environmental issues. Petersfield Tomorrow was set up in February 2006.
