The role of the NAG ?

Hungerford and Inkpen have joined together as neighbouring areas to form a Neighbourhood Action Group that will address some of the local issues and concerns that communities such as ours have these days – and for which it is sometimes unclear about where or how to bring them to the attention of the right people or official agencies to have action taken.

Organised initially by our local Police, the NAG (as it’s known) now has a volunteer membership drawn from our local Council, the Chamber of Commerce, West Berkshire Council, the Police, local schools, youth workers, housing agencies who together span all kinds of interests and age ranges.

With the main focus of activity being on problems identified as being "quality of life" issues, the role of the Nag is to listen to the voice of everyone in the community, find a consensus of what the current priorities are felt to be – and draw up a series of Action Plans to raise the profile of these issues so that we can bring them to the attention of the right people or the right agencies, to try and find solutions or improvements suitable to our own local resources and needs.

The NAG has already moved on to identifying some problem issues in the area – three public meetings so far have identified issues concerning speeding cars, inconsiderate parking, slow police response times, unruly children, difficulty in contacting the police, anti-social behaviour and underage drinking.

We have heard from young people too – who raised issues about the absence of facilities for young people in the town.

Members of the community have to accept that they themselves must take a lot of the responsibility for issues of safety and behaviour and good order. It’s not just a question of leaving everything to the Police – but the NAG will listen – and then provide a voice to tell the right people about what we all feel are the current priorities.