Date published: 2026-05-14 | Category: Delivering for local residents, Regeneration and Development
Two dedicated champions of the Twerton and Whiteway community have been appointed as co-chairs of the Pride in Place Neighbourhood Board.
Joy Luxford and Ruby Sant will work with a Neighbourhood Board and the local community to guide plans for £20million Government investment across the area over the next ten years.
Twerton and Whiteway is in the Government’s national Pride in Place programme, meaning the area will receive the funding to invest in local improvements chosen by people who live and work there.
Following an open recruitment process Joy and Ruby will play a key role in championing Twerton and Whiteway and ensure a community-led approach remains at the heart of the programme.
Joy Luxford is an award-winning director who specialises in supporting charities to create impact at scale. Joy is on the board at Alliance Homes (a social housing provider) and Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust. Joy was also a director of Bath City Football Club and until recently was a Whiteway resident.
Ruby Sant is the co-director of Little Lost Robot CIC and head of the Inclusive Communities team at Bath Spa University. Ruby established Creative Twerton and is a large-scale immersive artist, specialising in sculptural metalwork. Ruby brings significant funding knowledge, business development and community space expertise, as well as a great deal of lived experience to the role.
Joy Luxford said: “I am honoured to be appointed co-chair of the Pride in Place programme alongside Ruby. It offers a unique, high-impact opportunity for us to work with the local community to shape the long-term future of Twerton and Whiteway with substantial and sustained funding. We’re keen to use this role to empower community to co-create a vision and plan that will deliver immediate and long-term impact.”
Ruby Sant added: “I am delighted to be able to support the community to develop and deliver change making projects over the next two years and beyond. Joy and I strongly believe in the skills, passion and knowledge that is held by local people. We will be looking to build on this and leverage it to create generational, ambitious change.”
Wera Hobhouse, MP for Bath, said: “With the appointment of these two outstanding candidates as Twerton and Whiteway’s Pride in Place Neighbourhood Board co-chairs, today is a major step forward for this community-led programme.
“Twerton and Whiteway are a close-knit part of our city, full of heart and warmth and I look forward to working with Joy, Ruby, the Board and the whole community to ensure that Pride in Place funding is a catalyst for change here, making a real, positive and sustained difference to people's life chances and the neighbourhood they live in.”
Councillor Paul Roper, B&NES cabinet member for Economic and Cultural Sustainable Development, said: “Thank you to everyone who put themselves forward for the role as chair. Joy and Ruby bring combined skills and experience and we have every confidence that they will provide the Neighbourhood Board with the strategic leadership required to develop the Pride in Place Plan. We look forward to working in close partnership with them and also the other community members on the board, to deliver the programme and bring about real change for everyone who lives and works in Twerton and Whiteway.”
Members of the Neighbourhood Board will be appointed by the co-chairs with the support of Bath & North East Somerset Council.
The board will co-develop a Pride in Place Plan with the community. The plan will outline the vision for change and detail how funding will be used to achieve the community’s goals and ambitions. The plan will be submitted to the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) for assessment and approval in November 2026.
Further details on the project are available on the regeneration pages of the council website.