Photo by Kerri Scott of Community Advent Calendar organised by resident Shirley McKenzie Mutchell.

Oakridge Park Residents’ Forum met for the first time recently at The View at Linford Lakes, who were keen to offer their facility free of charge to engage with the community and promote the venue to local residents.

The evening took the form of a speed networking event with 16 stall holders providing information to over 40 attendees.

Feedback from the event was very positive from both residents and stallholders.

The Parks Trust commented, “we thought it was a very positive and well attended by residents.  We had some good conversations,” and from the Bedford Pilgrim Housing Association, “that was really well attended and well organised thanks for inviting us.”

Comments from residents included, “lovely evening please do another one soon” and “it would be nice to have a community space for meetings, mums and toddlers etc.”

Key themes discussed during the evening included; littering, parking and speeding and the need for future events to bring the community together.

We will now focus on establishing a local residents’ group consisting of those who showed initial interest in coming together to support the development of greater social cohesion within the community, and to work on addressing some of the local issues identified.

For more information please contact allison@communityactionmk.org