MP wants your help to Mansfield town centre great again

It’s a beautiful town in so many ways, with historic listed buildings and so much history, whether that is Mansfield, Woodhouse or Warsop.

There are challenges though of course, in the form of empty shops and anti-social behaviour that everyone wants to see sorted out.

Mansfield town centre has thrived in the past, and it can again in the future if there is a clear plan and everyone is serious about delivering it.

This is something that needs to come forward through the council’s local plan.

However, this is several years behind schedule and I’m not convinced that vision for the next 10 or 15 years is really there.

I want to find out what you think of the town centre, and how you think it should change to meet the challenges of the future.

Obviously more and more shopping is done online, and whilst we all need to encourage and support high street retail, we also need to branch out in to other things too to bring people in to the town.

I think there are physical changes that could be made to make the place busier and drive footfall.

And I’ve heard in recent weeks that market stall holders would like some specific changes too.

So my team and I are going to get out and get your views, by talking with the key stakeholders in the town centre.

We’ll be out with our survey to hear what you think about the town, but we want to hear the solutions as well as the problems.

Tell us what changes you would like to see, and what would make you more likely to visit more often.

What would attract people back, if they have stopped coming in?

We want to be that positive voice that is needed to push forward a plan, and to make sure that local decision makers are held to account.

Look for us in town this month.

I’ll also be sharing the survey on my Facebook page and website.