The first meeting of a new steering group to discuss the future of Axminster was held last week.

The steering group was formed of councillors and interested parties following a virtual public meeting earlier this month, when several ideas on how to revitalise and improve Axminster were shared.

The first steering group meeting was held on March 24 with 25 people in attendance, split evenly between district and town councillors and members of the public.

It was agreed that conjoining Axminster's Neighbourhood Plan with other work on the town's future using potential funding from East Devon's new Resilience, Adaptation and Innovation fund, while an attractive proposal, did not take into consideration the fact that the Neighbourhood Plan is a legal planning document.

It was therefore agreed that there needed to be two strands to the steering group, and those taking forward the Neighbourhood Plan will be town councillors Andrea Sedgewick, Jeremy Walden and Steve Holt, along with David Knapman, Cindy Furse, Barrie Hedges and Simon Smith.  

The second arm of the group will look at shorter-term objectives and "quick wins" for the town, co-ordinating with Totally Locally and the recently revitalised Chamber of Commerce.

Members focussing on this will include district councillor Sarah Jackson, town councillors Simon Sleigh and Martin Spurway, and residents Simon Smith, Cindy Furse and Barrie Hedges.

Both arms of the steering group will meet separately too further discuss ideas and the full group will then meet again in about a month.

Members of the group agreed that employing a professional town planning consultant to take plans forward was also an attractive option, but consideration needed to be given to employing a firm with specialisms including town and transport planning.  

It was also noted that different residents and interest groups would have different views about the vision of the future of Axminster.  

District councillor Paul Hayward is engaging with the Economic Development Officer at EDDC to discuss the current position of Axminster Regeneration Board, which was set up in 2016 under the former district council leadership to revitalise a town's economy through a careful blend of council and private sector investment and collaboration.