PEOPLE in Westbury have shown huge interest in an event tonight aimed at making improvements to the town.

More than 80 people have booked tickets for the Open Westbury event at The Laverton and more than 100 are expected to attend.

The two-hour meeting tonight from 7-9pm hopes to generate new ideas to help regenerate the town's economy and local environment.

The guest speakers will be Hazel Stuteley, chair of the C2 National Network of Connected Communities, and Grenville Chappel, a former refrigerator technician who became the Mayor of Falmouth.

Event organiser Ryan Child, of Westbury Town Council, said: "We’ve had a huge amount of interest in this event.

"We hope this event will illustrate how powerful resident-led action can be through Hazel and Grenville’s speeches

"We will be showing the work of POPCAN in Westbury how resident-led action is already shaping the town.

"Then we will be workshopping ideas, asking the question ‘What do you love about where you live in Westbury?’ ‘What action could you take to improve it?'"

Mr Child added: "What we are really looking for is a sense of ownership for the people of Westbury to look at the town and how we can improve it together.

"Open Westbury will be meeting at least six times through 2020 to share success stories, challenges and shared goals that the community can work on together."

The focus of Open Westbury is to bring the town together and look forward to thriving together in the coming years.

Guests will also get to see some of the great work that Penleigh and Oldfield Community Action Network is already doing in Westbury, including the removal of a shelter that led to an instant reduction in anti-social behaviour that was affecting the area.

Mrs Stuteley led a transformational community project in Falmouth, which saw a struggling community completely change their area through resident-led action.

She said: “I’m so excited to be visiting Westbury and sharing some of the simple but effective things that have made huge changes to communities around the UK.”

This year the Queen awarded Mr Chappel with a BEM for his service to community work.