Eynsham: A Great Place to Belong 28 Sep 2022 Where did the new local ‘tag line’ come from?

The recent installation of the village gateways – complete with ‘A Great Place to Belong’ alongside our village name – has created some speculation. We’ve noticed a few comments online and heard questions locally about the providence of this tag, so it was felt that an explanation was in order.

In 2021, the Parish Council started developing a strategic plan to help us set targets and focus our efforts over the coming years. As part of this document, we wanted to establish a ‘vision’ statement that would set a high-level aim for everything that we do as a Council.

The Council is passionate about the village and we share a belief that Eynsham parish is truly a great place to live. We feel that everything we do as a collective should be aimed at keeping it that way. We also believe that this remains true whether Eynsham was a home, a work location or a destination for a day trip.

The challenge was to capture these sentiments in a vision statement and the Council developed a choice of three. These different versions were shared at the Parish Open Day in November as part of consulting with the Parish on our plans. We also shared the options online, encouraging residents to vote for a preference. The vision statement that proved most popular was Eynsham, a Great Place to Belong, and so it was adopted.

In the interests of transparency, the voting was as below:

In 2022 when we started planning for the 20mph signage, we had an option to incorporate the (very typical) ‘Please drive carefully’ on to the village gateway or add a message of our own. The Council decided that our vision statement would be more unique and appropriate, and it was agreed that it would appear on the signs – as residents now see!

We hope this small act serves to differentiate our village and will prompt a smile or a feeling of pride from our residents upon arrival into the village. Eynsham is a great place to belong; the Parish Council remains committed to ensuring this is the case for the generations to come.  

Ross Macken, Chair