Michael Tomlinson attended a meeting at the Merley Community Centre to determine the practicality of setting up a Merley Neighbourhood Forum.
The meeting was attended by about 30 local residents. Councillor Judy Butt, the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Public Localism, also attended and set out the legal and democratic background to forming a neighbourhood forum.
Michael Tomlinson said, "There was no final conclusion reached, although Cllr Judy Butt and others spoke passionately about the benefits of setting up such a neighbourhood forum. I think it would be beneficial to guage the response from a greater number of local residents in order to determine whether this has the support locally to get up and running."