LOUDWATER has lost its heart and villagers want it back.

A group of them have arranged a meeting on February 10 to thrash out ideas and get as many people as possible involved in getting things going.

The steering group members say that putting the heart back into the community will come from the community. Residents will come up with ideas nothing is being dictated by people in authority.

But planners, environmental officers, people who know about sources of money or can help with lottery bids, will be on hand to help in a partnership role.

At a steering group meeting last week villager Chris Hawkes said: "We own this partnership with the people who make things happen. Villagers have to believe things are coming from them or they will not join in.

"There is a degree of unity in that we want to improve life in this village substantially."

Maurice Smith, who has lived in Loudwater all his life, said he had seen the loss of the community's heart. He blamed bad planning and said: "I hope we can put right some of the stupid things that have happened in this village."

He said Station Road was no longer the heart of the community and pointed out that the war memorial had been moved. The old mill, he said, was a shocking disgrace and he wanted to see the riverside walk reopened.

"We have no health centre just a doctors' surgery," he added. "We need better access to the playing fields. Policing is non existent. If you see one they are visiting a local shop."

Pauline Griffin said: "Things have got to such a pass that we can no longer identify a village centre. There is no heart." She said Loudwater needed a drop-in centre, but it was hard to identify a place.

Gary Brown, who led RAM, the group against the plan to build a McDonald's on the site of the White Blackbird, said he did not want people who come to the meeting to get the idea they would be ordered about. He said: "We want to be inclusive."

June Churchill, of Wycombe District Council, is Loudwater's link officer.

She said: "It is important to get across the fact that the community is leading. It is not official."

January 24, 2003 10:30