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.