We moved to a fairly new estate in Meltham 16 years ago. Lots of the people living there hadn’t been there long, so other than saying “hello” as you do in the street or over the garden fence, we didn’t really know each other. One day a couple of people put a note through everyone’s doors inviting the whole street to the local balti, and they virtually booked out the whole restaurant!
We knew that everyone in there was from our street, so it was a great way to break the ice, and it even led to some people setting up a neighbourhood watch. Most of those people have since moved on, so there’s fewer people that we know now. I don’t know what it would take to make something like that happen again, but there might be some development work happening in the local park, so maybe that could be an opportunity to get to know people again.
Thank you to Phil for sharing this story after participating in one of our “How can more people come together to make local places better?” online workshops for Kirklees citizens.
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