In June 2001, a well attended meeting was held in the Faringdon Corn Exchange, organised by a newly created Local Food Group. Discussion centered on Faringdon and its rural economy and how this Market Town could be 'raised' again from its somewhat dour existance. The one hundred and fifty persons present accepted that the rural economy is a tangled web of interwoven businesses, lifestyles, needs and wishes.
In 2002, an extensive Healthcheck was done of Faringdon, which took into account every aspect of the town. These included the higher unemployment rate than normal, its lower than average monthly earnings, the lack of transpor to Swindon, Oxford and Wantage, both for education and work and Faringdon's parking issues, especially near to the town centre.
It was recognised that the youth of the town were lacking facilities for sport and music, and that the farmers and those working in the industry did not have the infrastructures in which to build a sustainable economy.Many good things came about from the Healthcheck.
Broadband was brought to Faringdon and its villages, thereby enabling some businesses to be able to work from home and support the local economy, and its local butchers and bakers became accepted as providers of local food for eight different schools, local restaurants and pubs as well as the local population.
The Market Place was redesigned to make an attractive center for street restaurants, arts and music groups, and the town acquired a new park, The Folly Park, for recreation. There seemed an atmosphere of happiness developing throughout the town.Funding was the removed from the Faringdon Enterprise Gateway and its closure seemed inevitable, despite being most successful adn the many protestations.
The Faringdon Area Project felt it right to look again at the 2002 Healthcheck, and to tabulate what had been achieved, and to look forward into the next decade for the needs of the expanding population as well as to work harder to achieve those ideas that, despite all the efforts of many, had not yet been successful.
The volunteers also were strengthened by the knowledge of funding fro the project from the Vale of White Horse District Council.It was decided that the Action Plan 2008 should be succinct, and an easily accessible document. The timescale for the volunteers to do this should be realistic.
The work to create a new Action Plan started in September 2007, and was completed by March 2008. It was to be a document that was to build on the solid foundations of the past, and to find new and enterprising ideas for progress, a springboard, to fulfil the needs of the community in this unstable financial time and world climate change period.
