RESIDENTS in Tadcaster have met a major local employer to discuss how they can help local projects.

The Your Square Mile (YSM) organisation is working with Heineken to match employees at the John Smith’s brewery with projects voted on at the community workshops this week, based on the employees’ skills and interests.

Business leaders met the groups at Rosemary House last Monday, while about 30 residents attended a second workshop on the Tuesday.

A spokesman for Your Square Mile said: “The emphasis was on what businesses can contribute to Tadcaster, but also what they need from Tadcaster; plus an overall sense of how the town can increase employment and tourism.

“YSM intentionally recruited people whose voice is rarely heard but vitally important, such as teenagers and young adults, parents of young children from the Grange and Calcaria Housing estates as well as isolated, elderly people from the same estates.”

Residents at the second workshop told organisers “Tadcaster’s a dying town, no one comes here any more”, “We used to have a lot of strengths, but these have become less and less over the past ten years”, and “There is lots on, but people need to be told about it in a better way”.

Ideas included a skate park or sports centre for Tadcaster youths and a mobile market to bring food and goods to under-resourced areas.

The spokesman said the ideas would be fed back to Heineken, other local business representatives and community leaders.

He said: “It may take some time, but people are being encouraged to stick with it as they will be able to make a difference.”