The more eagle-eyed among you will have spotted a new publication onthe Town Council stall at the Food Festival announcing A NEW VISION to be created for this council term.

We recently shared ideas at a Beverley Branch meeting to guide our Labour councillors regarding our concerns about the town and the way forward. It seems sensible to throw this open again for people to voice not just concerns but solutions also. Let’s bring new ideas to the table and guide our team with our thoughts.

Is it just the age-old problems of dog mess and litter that preoccupy us, important as they are?

Many of you will be aware that in a letter to Beverley Life I raised the idea  of parking charges and whether we should follow the example of either Goole or Hessle in this regard even if it meant a modest increase in the precept. [Goole offers 30 minutes free parking and Hessle no charge at all]

I do share the concept in the Council leaflet of wanting to be “happy in Beverley” but I want so much more than that. I want it to be a place that has a manufacturing base again, not just leaving our young folk at the whim of the retail trade on which so many jobs rely.

Where are the truly affordable homes for our young people to rent and to buy? In which areas, such as housing, do we want our Town Council to hold ERYC to account? How can we overcome the barrier put up by the house builders in not financing the Park and Ride unless the revenue has come in from nearby house build sales?

How do we occupy our young people in the evening with no youth service? How do we listen to their voice and find out what matters to them?

Big issues perhaps for a Town Council? I think not. Politics begins at a local level. Unless we want it to continue to be responsible just for food festivals, flower displays and allotments.

It might cost us more [and might involve us working closely with Woodmansey and Molescroft Parish Councils with their very modest precepts, and indeed with ERYC] but better a vision with the money to back it than an endless cycle of seasonal fruit and vegetables!

How about not only responding to this article with your thoughts, but using the letters page of Beverley Life to raise ideas and offer a way forward. If you are a member of a political party by all means say so, but make it clear that you are presenting a personal view, unless of course it has been agreed first at a meeting.

What concerns YOU? What is YOUR vision for Beverley?

Martin Cox