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.

Building Schools for the Future

The Education Secretary Michael Gove MP has announced that the Building Schools for the Future porgramme is being suspended/scrapped as part of the govenrments funding cuts.

In St Helens a number of schools were scheduled to be involved in either new build programmes or substantial re-modeling of the existing schools. According the information released last night some schools within the programme are unaffected particularly ones where they are moving to become an academy.

As it stands the current Hope Park academy in Newton is unaffected and the new academy planned for Sutton might still go ahead. There is also a possibility that the remodelling of De La Salle and Rainford might proceed but these will be subject to further scrutiny. Unfortunately all other projects affecting other schools in the borough as part of the BSF programme will no longer go ahead and this will affect, St Augutines, St Cuthberts, Haydock, , Mill Green, the development of new pupil referal facility.

Halifax Agency Closures

Last week the Halifax announced that it was closing all of its agnecies across the UK as they no longer fitted thier business model.

As a result of this decision the Halifax agencies in Thatto Heath, Rainford, Billinge and Fingerpost are all due to close in October/November this year.

For some of these communities the Halifax is the only banking facility serving those areas and even the cash point facilities which are currently available at these agencies may also be withdrawn. This will have a detrimental affect on local residents and business in the area who rely on these Halifax outlets for banking services and the shops located in proximity to them will be particulalrly affected. CEN has contacted ward councillors in each of the ward areas affected and we hope that some alternative provision and the retententio of the ATM cash machines will remain.