A group of older residents in Reading have called for clearer action and better publicity for a key forum set up to represent them.
They warned that they do not want the Older People’s Working Group to become a “talking shop” and urged Reading Borough Council to show what it has actually achieved.
Members at the latest meeting said they wanted to raise awareness of the group through more targeted publicity, including press releases from the council and the Ageing Well Partnership.
They said they first needed to work out where older people are most likely to see information in their communities, and suggested everything from the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL), which one woman said she “loved”, to Broad Street Mall and local clubs.
Councillor Andrew Hornsby-Smith (Labour, Church) suggested advertising in leisure centres, supermarkets and on community noticeboards – as long as they could be protected from the rain.
He also mentioned Family Hubs as another route to reach people, such as the South Reading Community Hub, the Dee Park Community Building, Sun Street Community Hub and Southcote Family Hub.
Women at the meeting also suggested GP surgeries.
A man said that many groups that used to attend the meetings had lost contact over recent years, including various faith groups.
He said: “We need to reconnect with those groups somehow, using the council’s correspondence.”
There was also a plea for the council to show that their input leads to change.
A man said: “We need to prove what we discuss has action. We don’t want to be just a talking shop.
“We want people to say yes, we’ve achieved it, or sorry, we’ve failed for whatever reason.”
Some members questioned whether the group’s name was putting people off. A woman contributing online said she was “really anti-ageist” and suggested renaming it “Mature Residents” for people who have “been around a bit”.
While she is 60 years old, she said, she was put off 60-plus groups that seemed to want people “to play bingo and vegetate”.
She also pointed out that there was no mention in current publicity that the meeting is hybrid, calling that “a huge oversight”, and suggested future material should set out tangible results, as well as welcoming people from neighbouring Wokingham.
Cllr Paul Gittings (Labour, Coley, the chair of the group, thanked members for their “really valuable feedback”, but said it might be difficult to condense everything the group had achieved into a simple list. The group, founded in 2013, has “had some really good speakers” and “helped shape policy.”
He then described Older Persons Day, which the group helps to run as a “very big achievement” that has continued to grow and prosper and said he hoped to “attract some new blood” to future meetings.
The discussion took place at the council chamber on Friday, April 10.
The group were also told that there were 1,637 people with dementia in Reading, which will pass 2,000 by 2030.
Find out how to get involved by emailing OPWG@reading.gov.uk.
