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.