Manifesto

Democracy

The Royston Town Party will increase public meetings from one to four per year because we want to hear your views and we are here to work for you.
It's time for a really local vision.
We will retain all the current council committees, but we will bring in two new working parties:
1. Tourism and local business
2. Environmental
These two new working parties will coordinate meetings between members of the public and organisations outside the council, so that Royston can benefit from expert input.
Policies drafted by these working parties will be brought to the general public at public meetings where the findings and ideas can be discussed, and a new plan of action proposed. Together we are stronger.
To drive new business through hiring, we will make the Town Hall Wi-Fi free to all hirers.
To improve transparency and trust in the local government, we will record every vote on planning decisions so that the public know how each Councillor voted – it is time for a really local vision.
We will look into replacing the Royston Town Mayor's annual Civic Reception with an awards reception honouring people within our community with a new ‘Golden Community Award’.

Growing our Town

We will be working with local business owners, who are based at home, outside of the main town centre and industrial areas, to design a programme to support them to grow and thrive in our town. These essential businesses who add so much to our community will no longer be overlooked – we will absolutely be including them in our mission to promote Think local, shop local where possible.
The Royston Town Party will be working to bring in 2 hours of free parking in Royston, at any time of the day.
We will start with two hours of free parking at the Civic Car Park (the one near the Town Hall) as this will provide free parking when visiting your GP, Nurse or specialist at the Health Centre in addition to shopping, or socialising, in our town. Whilst we understand that this is only possible by working with other organisations, we are going to be putting the health of our residents and access to our local town first.
We will bring in a place where busker entertainers can perform, encouraging Royston to become a trendier place.
Within our first budget we will invest in improving the signage to show people where shops and businesses are located.
We will be working to increase more short-term / disabled parking spaces in the town centre, this access is invaluable to helping people to shop locally.
We will be looking at investing in redeveloping a site to include a public toilet with changing facilities for children and disabled people. This will help everyone in our community to feel valued and have an enjoyable experience of visiting our town.
We will work closely with organisations outside the council to bring environmentally green businesses, large and small, to the Royston town centre and industrial area.
We would work with local businesses to make Royston Town centre a fair trade coffee town.

We would look at introducing a Tourism Centre or Local Hub similar to that in the local village of Melbourn, which includes toilets and attractions and a walking route guiding visitors.
Whilst we of course recognise that improving tourism is an ongoing and long-term project, it will contribute to Royston becoming a thriving hub of activity.

Environment

The Royston Town Party would start working straight away with the organisation involved with the heath to build an education base using mainly environmentally-friendly materials, time for a really local vision.
This base will give us the resources to teach the present and future generations about the value of looking after our local nature and the wider world’s environment. We feel that education is an important key to a greener Royston. This would also encourage educational trips to Royston from the surrounding area.
We will work closely with other organisations to bring environmentally green, large and small, businesses to Royston. To ensure a strong focus on this, the Royston Town Party has an ‘Industrial and Small Business Liaison Officer’, and will make this a position within the council
We will look at sustainability for today’s and future generations by working with organisations to design a ‘Life Map For Royston’. This will be a policy and a plan to support Royston to make a difference for our own community, which will in-turn help towards solving the global issues.
We know how important it is to leave the future generations of Royston, a healthier environment and this is why we are forming our Environmental working party.
We will protect the green belt around Royston from development wherever possible.
We believe that the negative impacts of developing on natural habitats should be avoided wherever possible.
We believe the council should look at the energy supplies and if possible, use green energy suppliers.
We want the council to go paperless where possible by 2025.
We will give environmental awards each year to businesses and organisations for their environmental contribution to our town. Royston’s environment must be at the heart of our great community and we can make this happen - together we are stronger.

Housing

The Royston Town Party is not against development, but we want to see developments for Royston with the correct infrastructure.
As mentioned before, we believe in transparency between the council and the public, so we will record every vote on planning so that the public know how each Councillor voted.
We feel people in Royston and the surrounding villages should be priority when it comes to social & affordable housing. The Royston Town Party would work with North Herts District Council to bring it into their policy that all significant development in Royston should include more social & affordable houses. We feel that more social & affordable houses will keep the next generation based in Royston and help reduce the need for them to move away. Investing in our next generation now will be investing in a better future for Royston.
Where possible we will be against developments on green belt land and we feel that brown sites (those which have already been built on) should always be considered for development first.
We will give the people of Royston more input and knowledge of the local planning policy.
This will be done mainly by an annual public planning meeting where everyone can discuss decisions made – decisions made by local people, for local people – it is time for a really local vision.

Crime

The Royston Town Party will work closely with the local police. This includes meeting regularly to discuss concerns and ideas that the local community has.
We will work with organisations to bring back CCTV to Burns Road and with the community we will look at where else they are wanted. The community have also said that Garden Walk would welcome CCTV.
Working closely with the police, we will transparently publish crime rates on a regular basis and bring in regular crime prevention open evenings. We will put our community safety first, time for a really local vision.

Senior people

The Royston Town Party believes that the senior people in this town should feel valued and that is why we plan to set up The Royston Seniors Committee.
The committee members would be nominated by the general public to tell us what their needs are and what social activities could be organised. Within our first budget we will give this committee £2500 to help implement their suggestions for social events.
We believe in not telling you what is best for you but instead listening and acting on your views.
We would work with the local police to arrange regular events in crime prevention to make this community feel even safer. We believe this will also bring down the crime figures against our seniors.
We are committed to the senior people who live in Royston and to showing that we are 100% behind them. It really is time for a really local vision.