Hay Together

This was the third meeting of what is intended to be a sort of umbrella organisation for all the groups and interested parties of Hay.
In the last thrilling installment, a couple of chaps from the Localism Network came to talk to the meeting about the possibility of running a workshop to find out what the needs and desires of the community in Hay are - and once everyone knows that, those wishes can be acted on, and the community can talk to local authorities and other bodies to make their wishes and needs known. (I think that's a fair summing up of what it's all about).

This meeting was to decide between the three different bodies which can provide such a workshop. There was the Localism Network, of course, and an architect's firm from Cardiff (who understand the way things are organised in Wales, and who recently did a lot of work with the town of Ruthin in North Wales) and PAVO, the local Powys body which gives grants and so on. There was a fair amount of discussion about the pros and cons of all these groups, but eventually PAVO was chosen, partly because they were offering the workshop for free, and partly because they are the body that Hay would most come into contact with when applying for grants and arranging projects, so we may as well start off with a good working relationship.
There was also some discussion about whether we needed an outside body to come in and facilitate a workshop at all, with all the talent that there is already in Hay. However, the discussion itself proved that, to quote one participant, we were "a group of well-meaning people floundering...." Also, an outside, neutral facilitator would be able to rise above any in-fighting or rivalries or personal differences which would be bound to surface between groups in Hay itself.

So, Johnny Kramer, who has been doing a vast amount of work behind the scenes to make this all happen, is going to go to PAVO and ask them to arrange a workshop for sometime in September. He's going to be part of a committee which will also include Gareth Ratcliffe, the man from CRAP, Kate Freeman for the artists of Hay, Ellie Spencer who is also on the Town Council, Liz from the feminist group who also works for PAVO (she kept very quiet during the discussions of who to choose for the workshop) and, once it was mentioned that meetings would be taking place in a pub, Gareth who organises youth football! There are a couple of other people, too, but I didn't catch every name.

It was a great concern of the meeting that everybody in Hay should be included, and every voice heard - there are always people who never join anything, but their views are important too, whether it's the people who have allotments, or people who fish on the Wye, or elderly people, or the youth club - the future of Hay is the future for everybody who lives in Hay, as well as people who live in the surrounding villages (Gareth the footballer lives in Painscastle). The idea of Hay Together is that there is a united voice for the town, including the Town Council but not just the Town Council, so that the people of Hay can say what they want and be listened to by those people who have power to impose changes on the town. There are a lot of challenges in the world at the moment which the people of Hay have no control over - recession, climate change, peak oil, and all those other things that don't seem to have much to do with everyday life here - until they do. One example of this is the government announcement that the British Army will be cut by 20%. That impacts families in Hay directly, as jobs will be lost.

Another concern was that existing groups in Hay should be supported - especially Community Support, and Dial-a-Ride, for example - who are already in touch with people in Hay who don't normally come to meetings.

Rodney Mace, who stood for the Town Council recently (but failed to win a seat), brought along a relic of a past attempt to do something similar - a hugely thick document produced after a consultation exercise around the time of the Millennium, called United Hay. Several people at the meeting remembered this happening - and the lack of anything tangible coming out of it afterwards. So there is a certain amount of cynicism, and a certain amount of determination that this time it will be different. Apparently, some parts of the document have been used, by the Cheesemarket renovation group, for example, but it cost an awful lot of money for very little effect, and we don't want to make that mistake again.

And to finish with dates for the diary: Hay School Fete will be taking place on Saturday July 14th, and the Community Support AGM will be in St John's on Thursday 12th July at 7pm.