Ask Rossendale breaks new ground for community viewpoints

Date published: 30 August 2009

Ask Rossendale is the newest way for you to make your views and ideas known about Rossendale.

Apart from a comprehensive review of Events and current News items to do with the Valley, this site offers a unique combination of features which means that your voice can be heard, and Ask Rossendale is one place to collect all the views in the valley and for those views, democratically expressed, to have an effect on decision-making in the valley.

We offer a first class FORUM, where you can register yourself, and be identified with a pseudonym if you prefer, and then you can state your opinion about what YOU feel passionate about in Rossendale.

Already there are 'threads' to do with the Valley Centre, and a call for a public debate on an integrated policy for the centre of Rawtenstall, and the other town centres; a discussion about voting rules to get a truly democratic result; and views about the alleged decline of the Free Press.

And though there are other good Forums in the valley, what makes Ask Rossendale different is that it is going to be read by Councillors - the decision makers of our valley - because they have their own 'blog' space on Ask Rossendale, to make their points and get their views across.

Councillor Diaries is now starting to 'catch on' and is beginning to get regular contributions from Cllr Jason Gledhill - the Cabinet member for Leisure, and who is heading up the highly visible, highly sensitive Leisure Review. 

He is flagging up the opportunities for everyone to have a say about the future of Bacup Leisure Hall on 15th September in the evening, at the Hall, and he is also challenging the government to put money into the Heavy Rail connection from Rawtenstall to Manchester. You can read them now on

www.askrossendale.co.uk/news-features/councillor-diaries/

As local and general elections loom every closer - probably Spring 2010, these Councillor Diary entries will both help you decide who to vote for, and also to let them know what you think about the key issues facing residents in Rossendale.

Get on the Forum now! Get your opinions out there. Your views count!

www.askrossendale.co.uk/forum/forum.asp