A SPECIAL health and wellbeing forum is being held tonight in a Powys town in an effort to tackle the escalating cost of living crisis and to discuss what local communities can do to change things.

Bronllys Well Being Park Community Land Trust is hosting the forum at 7pm tonight (March 23) at Talgarth Town Hall. 

The forum will cover such issues as health services in south Powys, access to them, transport services in the area, the desperate need for affordable housing and jobs that bring prosperity to the area. 

“Without a vibrant local economy and supporting services it becomes really hard to deliver wellbeing to the communities in this area,” said Jacqueline Wilding, chair of Bronllys Well Being Park CLT.

There will be a distinguished panel in attendance, representing local communities and championing the resolution of some of the pressing issues and needs in south Powys. 

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On the panel will be Member of the Senedd and Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds, as well as the leader of Powys County Council and the council’s cabinet member for an Open and Transparent Powys, James Gibson-Watt.

Also present will be Clair McNiffe, lead officer at Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations (PAVO); Tom Chance, CEO of the National Community Land Trust Network; and Casey Edwards and Hugh Russell, project advisor and project manager respectively for Cwmpas, a development agency formerly known as the Wales Co-operative Centre.

Lydia Powell, president of Bronllys Well Being Park CLT, said: “As the cost of living crisis continues for so many families and services become severely stretched, this forum will provide an opportunity to discuss and establish what our communities can do to bring about lasting and beneficial change. 

“It is time for communities to engage more effectively with statutory services to deliver the services we and future generations need.”

The formal part of the forum will end at 8.30pm but refreshments will then be served and provide an opportunity for informal discussion between panel members and the audience.