Sir – It has been great to see the people of Witney working together to build community.

Recently we’ve seen members of the local Conservative Party doing a litter pick on Smiths Estate, groups such as Dig ‘n’ Grow and Witney Edible Gardens planting out edible fruits, flowers and vegetables throughout the town for all to enjoy, we’ve had the Cogges Community Picnic, the play day in Burwell and let’s not forget the great work of Lyn Jones and fellow residents in creating Burwell Community Wildlife Garden. Community is so important. It keeps us connected, grounded and provides one of the greatest human needs — friendship.

Along with all of these wonderful projects, it has also been encouraging to see the StreetBank community growing in Witney. StreetBank is a national project supported by the Cabinet Office which allows neighbours to share. Their website says it best, “StreetBank shows you all the things and skills your neighbours are offering. It’s a giant garden shed, toolkit, fancy dress chest, book and DVD library and skills bank for your neighbourhood.”

On a personal note, I have not only been able to get to know my neighbours better, I have also been able to massively reduce my carbon footprint by lending and borrowing items with people just round the corner.

It will be great to see this project grow much more in Oxfordshire over the coming months and to see it strengthening our already apparent strong community ties.

Richard Mackenzie, Witney