Committed to making Banbury Age Friendly

With the generous support of local businesses Brethertons, Spratt Endicott, DCS and other funders including Sir Tony Baldry DL, Doris Field Charitable Trust and Mactaggart Trust this has now enabled Age Friendly Banbury to appoint a new part-time co-ordinator. Sir Tony Baldry High Steward of Banbury says, “This is a great opportunity for the wider community of Banbury to join together and make Banbury an even greater place to grow older”.

The new Age Friendly Banbury co-ordinator will work in a very different way with the local community to drive forward local priorities across a network of businesses, charities and volunteers and we are happy to advise that Bee Myson will start her new role on the 1st July. Bee has already been volunteering as part of the project, so will bring with her a wealth of experience which will allow her to work with the current and potential network to drive the initiatives forward. She will be based at Bodicote House in Banbury, generously hosted by Cherwell District Council. Councillor

Andrew McHugh says, “With Bee’s current knowledge and experience working within this sector and having lived locally all her life, means she will be a massive asset to the Age Friendly Banbury partnership.”

Building on comments and feedback received from local people Age Friendly Banbury will focus on the following four priorities:

1. Getting About – improving access to transport to help people get out and about and reduce worries about isolation and accessing basic services and shops
2. Health and Community – improving access to services and support to help people be as healthy as possible
3. Town Centre – taking action to make the town-centre more age-friendly, specifically by increasing seating areas and public toilets in parks and around the town centre, and encouraging local businesses to think about being more age friendly
4. Getting Connected – increasing the range and accessibility of activities to tackle isolation and loneliness, providing more opportunities for people to get together. And providing information so people know what’s going on.

Each priority theme will have a small working group with an individual lead and Bee will work closely with all these groups. She will help maintain momentum, make connections, facilitate communication and ensure Age Friendly Banbury ‘joins up all the dots’.

Age Friendly Banbury would like to thank all our supporters, both the match funders, volunteers and everyone who works within the various charities and local businesses. There are new initiatives in the pipeline, and we look forward to making Banbury one of Britain’s first age-friendly towns.

However, the best way to make this happen is for as many people as possible to get involved either as a charity, business or local resident and if you are interested in helping us reach out to more people in the community then please do get in touch or send us an email to bee@oxfordshire.org or call 07500 285909.

We would welcome the opportunity to tell you more and to talk to you about becoming an Age Friendly Banbury Champion.