YOU cannot phone a friend and you cannot ask the audience — it is your answers at an exciting community initiative being held during the next week which could frame the future of the Tavistock area.
Over the next week, from Saturday, April 20, a series of exhibitions is being staged by the Tavistock and District Market Towns Initiative, asking people for their ideas to make their community a more prosperous and better place to live.
The town and its surrounding area has been chosen by the Government as part of the South West Regional Development Agency's Market and Coastal Town Initiative for special support to access funding.
A steering group made up of a cross-section of local people has been set up to move the initiative forward.
The group — The Tavistock and District Market Towns Initiative — now wants local people to come forward to have their say on the future of their communities.
It is staging an all-day exhibition from 10am to 3pm on Saturday, April 20 in a marquee in Bedford Square, Tavistock, with the Stannary Band on hand to provide some entertainment.
The exhibition will move to Tavistock Library for the whole of the following week, with a further exhibition in Horrabridge Village Hall from 5pm to 8pm on Tuesday, April 23 and in the Nicholls Hall at Lydford on Wednesday, April 24.
Chairman of the steering group, Devon county councillor Gretta Madigan, said: 'Many of us have been pressing the Government to help rural areas as we sometimes feel that our problems have been forgotten.
'It is easy for politicians to think that because we live in a beautiful area life is perfect.
'I am delighted that the Market Towns Initiative has come to Tavistock, and we are all determined to get lots of new projects up and running.'
John Taylor, vice-chairman, said that whilst the groundwork had been started with the Tavistock Forward group's Town Alive programme, the purpose of this exercise was to consult with as many people as possible for their views as to where they would like their community to be over the next 10 and 20 years.
Another member of the group, West Devon councillor Margaret Garton, said the more people who went along to have their say at the exhibitions, the better the final plan would be.
She said: 'This initiative is for the parishes as well as for Tavistock. If people from these parishes are not able to get to the exhibitions I hope they will fill in a questionnaire.
'It's vital that everyone has a say.'
As well as the exhibitions, simple questionnaires are being distributed throughout the parishes in shops, post offices, garages and public houses.
Included are such questions as 'What three things do you like best about living in the Tavistock area?' and 'What three things do you like least?'