The Farnborough Society

One of my great passions is The Farnborough Society, of which I am Hon Secretary and a founder member. Established in 2008, TFS continues to grow and diversify, hosting a wide range of events throughout the year--walks, talks, tours and social activities, actively engaging with the Planning Department of Rushmoor Borough Council with monthly meetings, and, more recently, creating a Youth Initiative and a Pedestrian Forum.

Our Executive Committee recognises that Farnborough, the birthplace of British aviation, simply doesn't live up to its incredibly rich heritage. A lamentable lack of vision has resulted in a generic town centre unworthy of the name Farnborough. But the potential is enormous. With a couple of friends, I co-authored a response on behalf of TFS to Rushmoor's Core Strategy consultation in which we set out our vision for a new cultural heart to the town, with a piazza-style town square and an arts complex consisting of a small theatre, exhibition space, meeting/ rehearsal rooms and indoor/outdoor cafe culture. The obvious location for such a centre is alongside Meudon Avenue, on the site of the police station (scheduled to close), the community centre (no longer fit for purpose) and the library, which is good, but in a dreadfully ugly, concrete building, and could be housed elsewhere. We would  envisage the design for such a project to draw on the many former RAE listed buildings nearby, much as the excellent Redrow development has done.

I am dismayed that there is nothing to attract Farnborough's more affluent workers into the town centre, nor the tens of thousands of visitors who come for the Air Show, and believe our arts complex would do exactly that, and ultimately benefit many of our local businesses. We could have themed markets, musical events and parades here, and I am convinced that it all would engender a new sense of civic pride too. This is my dream and I shall be promoting the idea at every opportunity.

The Youth Initiative aims to produce a range of age-appropriate walking tours around the town, with points of interest to look for and with opportunities for further research. We hope to persuade schools and youth organisations to encourage children to use these to discover more about their home town and hopefully to increase their pride in Farnborough.

The Pedestrian Forum will give all walkway users a platform from which to make their views heard. We aim to bring together people who walk for leisure, to take children to and from school, to shop and to go to work, as well as disabled people, wheelchair and mobility scooter users, people with strollers and toddlers, and the elderly. As well as the actual fora, we will conduct street surveys and report our findings to Rushmoor BC and Hampshire CC. I'm a great advocate of this kind of partnership working and have high hopes that we can make a valuable contribution for the implementation of the Farnborough Town Access Plan.