Fingerpost Participatory Budgetting on the 16th February 2011

On Wednesday 16th February 1.3opm at Holy Trinity Church Fingerpost, the CEN will be holding a participatory budgeting event were we will be looking to support new neighbourhood ideas and projects. There is £5000 worth of funding for community projects available.

Please contact CEN if you would like to attend or if you are a resident who lives in Fingerpost you can apply for funding towards a project idea for your community. We are looking to fund five community projects up to the maximum value of £1000 each.

Application forms can be obtained from CEN at our office address at 105 Corporation Street St Helens and the deadline for the return of the forms is Friday 11th February at 5pm

Active Citizens Scoping Visit 16th-20th January 2011

Last week we were delighted to welcome eight visitors from three different countries (Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine) to St Helens for a planning visit as part of the Active Citizens programme which St Helens CEN is involved with.

Apart from the planning discussions which took place, we were delighted to show our visitors around a number of projects taking place across St Helens, including Climate Friendly Food at Fir Tree Farm Rainford, Moss Lodge, Parr, Ashtons Green Allotments, and the community garden at Sutton Manor. Our visitors also had the opportunity to learn more about Saints Community Foundation from Gordon Pennington, meet the Mayor of St Helens Cllr Neil Taylor and learn more about the work of the Princes Trust Team in St Helens. We also managed to fit in some free time for our visitors to have a look round St Helens and Liverpool whilst they were here.

Part of the visit also included a look at some of the developments and community facilities which the local authority has recently completed including the new leisure Centre at Queens Park and the iHub facility at St Helens Library for young people.

In all the scoping visit was a very positive learning experience for our visitors and we are looking forward to hosting a larger group in the summer as well as visiting each of their countries.

Happy New Year 2011

A happy new year to all our readers.

2011 will be very challenging year for nearly everyone as the effects of the spending cuts become more apparent. The Liverpool Daily Post earlier today reported on the number of business failures across the Merseyside area and last year saw a reduction in the number of businesses across Merseyside as a result of business failure.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2011/01/03/mersey-business-base-hit-by-recession-92534-27923574/

St Helens sadly doesn't feature much better with the number of business failures double the national average as reported by the Daily Post.

This news presents a worrying picture as it indicates the fragile nature of the local economy and the difficulties in running businesses within the current economic climate.

Lets hope there is more positive news in the year but at the moment many people are bracing themselves for the effects that will impacted upon local authorities in the weeks ahead.

CEN Open meeting on 17th September 2010

Our next Open Meeting is being held on the 17th September 12 noon at Holy Cross Church Hall in Corporation Street St Helens (next to the Arriva Offices and Theatre Royal.)

We will be looking at what the Big Society means for us in St Helens in the face of challenging public sector cuts and how we can be more resilient in the face of this. There will be opportunities for community groups to raise issues and share their thoughts on various topics.
Refreshments and a buffet lunch will be available. Please let us know if you are coming along.

Since the Big Society has been launched (3 times now) there have been a number of cuts which will affect the development of projects. The Plunkett Foudation is one such organisation which was helping communities to save their village shop or pub. All funding for this programme has been cut. If the Big Society is to mean anything it needs resourcing otherwise it just won't work.

Big Society Launch 19th July Liverpool

Earlier today David Cameron held yet another launch of the Big Society initiative in Liverpool.

Whilst the localism agenda can be viewed as a positive development the majority of people commenting on various websites today from the BBC, Daily Mail, Guardian et al.. are all in the main very scpetical of the Big Society. Many people believe its just a subtle way of introducing more cuts and getting people to volunteer more and provide less state run services.

Whilst there is perhaps some merit in this line of thought the agenda does present perhaps a new opportunity to encourage people to take more responsibility for their neighbourhoods and hold service providers to account.

There no doubt that the current funding situation is of huge concern to many people working in the public sector and indeed to many voluntary sector organisations that rely on state funding or local authority funding. Indeed if we are told is correct then many councils will be at least 25-40% smaller than they are in a matter of a few years. How much will communities be disadvantaged further when these cuts come in?

What further needs to be recognised by government is that there is a cost to volunteering that goes beyond just a time commitment. Volunteers often need training and resourcing in different ways (just like paid staff) and its not yet clear who picks up the tab for this within Big Society? Equally not all community groups by any means suddenly want to become service providers or wish to become and arm of the states delivery mechanism and so a the role of grant funding remains just as important.

There is also a danger that the government only wish to fund new projects (out of whatever little money there might be available) rather than support the existing work of community groups and organisations who are already active and provide a range of help, mutual support and improvement to neighbourhoods across the UK.

It is essential that further opportunities are found to ensure that community organisations can play a greater role influencing the nature of Big Society itself rather than the agenda influencing them.

Workshop with the Parliamentary Outreach Service

A quick reminder to groups that CEN is holding a free workshop for groups this Friday at 12 noon at the United Reformed Churtch King Street St Helens for those interested learning more about how we can positively influence the work of Parliament and MP's through the select committees etc.

As there is to be a new commitee set up for Big Society chaired by Francis Maud MP it is important that community groups are involved in shaping this as much as possible.

If you would like to attend please get in contact with CEN on 01744 759390 sthelenscen@gmail.com

Parkside Rail Frieght Terminal

Late last week Prologis who are the company behind the plans to develop a rail freight interchange terminal at Parkside near Newton -le-Willows have decided to no longer proceed with the plans due to the current economic climate. They recognise that the site remains an ideal place for a rail freight terminal but at the moment the high costs of altering key rail and road infrastructure arround the site make the development prohibitive at this time. There have been different arguments for several years about the benefits and equally the damage such a project could have brought to St Helens between residents living near the site and local politicians of different parties but for the time being the project is now on hold until circumstances change.