MEMBERS of the Devon Heartlands Community Forum were joined by local councillors and other interested parties at a special meeting held earlier this month in the Ockment Centre, Okehampton.

The meeting was to see how 'community engagement' is undertaken by the people from Okehampton, North Tawton, Chagford and the surrounding parishes — who make up the Devon Heartlands Community Forum.

The event was organised by the Devon Association of Local Councils and included presentations from the Devon Futures Group who advanced the need for good community engagement within the context of the economic and environmental challenges faced now and in the future.

Ewen Rae from Devon Heartlands said: 'There were no shortages of ideas and suggestions for improvements coming from the forum members who are keen to engage with the agencies and help get things done.'

Philip Wagstaff, the forum chairman, spoke of its achievements, its ground-breaking work with the Carnegie UK Trust and its long-standing connections with the West Devon Local Strategic Partnership, making the point that groups all need to work together and respect one another and that the Community Forum had demonstrated how valuable engagement of this kind could be.

Devon Heartlands Community Forum meets at the Ockment Centre on the first Wednesday of every month between 2pm-4pm.  All forum meetings are independent, free and open to all.

For more details call 01837 659991 or e-mail  [email protected]">[email protected] or write to the Devon Heartlands Office, 1 Fore Street, Okehampton EX 20 1AA.