Sir – It’s fantastic that over the past few years we have seen the rise of such groups as Sustainable Witney, Meet & Veg Witney – a group for local vegans and vegetarians – Edible Gardens — for those who want to eat their own produce – and so many more.

The best thing about all this is that it is our neighbours who are giving their time to make these groups happen for the benefit of our community.

They’re not waiting for the local councillors or politicians to make things happen (I guess we know we’ll be waiting a long time if we did) but we’re just rolling up our sleeves and getting on with it.

As the summer approaches, I’d urge all our neighbours here in Witney to get stuck into our community, just like the groups mentioned, and make things happen.

Here in Cogges we are organising monthly litter-picks, football matches, picnics and later in the summer we will be taking part in the Big Lunch, which is a national initiative to get neighbours to share lunch up and down the country on June 1.

Long may this ‘bottom-up’ way of community building continue!

Richard Maclenzie, Manor Road, Cogges, Witney