West Marsh Forward Meeting

At the meeting on Wednesday the 19th October it was agreed that I should draft a Community Plan for the West Marsh in order to align ourselves with the Community First Funding the details for which can be found here http://www.cdf.org.uk/web/guest/neighbourhood-matched-fund.
Councillor Billard and I will work on the plan based on the contributions from members at the meeting and we will also present a first draft of the Neighbourhood Plan which is specifically about planning issues in the area and will give the community quite a lot of clout about the direction of planning and housing on the West Marsh.
As I mentioned at the meeting I am on leave next week and so I will get the first draft out w/c 31st October.

River Freshney Update

River Freshney Update:

Since our meeting on the 29^th September things have been developing in the background. A walk took place to look at the route a documentary filming crew of young people would take when the initial engagement of communities takes place in each ward the river runs through.

Contact has been made with other stakeholders including initial attempts at engaging land owners whose property includes the riparian land along the river.

It has been established that there are various sites where, with the necessary permissions, enhancements to the environment could be made.

This could include the placement of bird and bat boxes (Friends of the Freshney have already made some progress with this initiative on the Duke of York Gardens) and an initial wildlife survey to inform future initiatives. Other suggestions for urban areas would be welcome at this stage.

The anglers group have just about got their constitution sorted and are waiting for bank accounts and other administrative issues to be finalised before their inaugural meeting.

Following the meeting below is a draft description of the main aims of the consortium of groups:

1.    To encourage and enhance the natural environment over the length of the River Freshney from source to mouth.

2.    To actively encourage, through efficient partnership working, improvements in habitat, safety, flow, recreational activities and environmental and historical education.

3.    To produce a document (Filmed and Written) to evaluate:

(a)  How people in North East Lincolnshire perceive and engage with the river.

(b)  The areas of the river which should be celebrated and more widely publicised.

(c)  The potential for ecological and amenity development.

(d)  The barriers to positive development on the river.

(e)  The level of responsibility to be taken by the Authorities (Local and National) and ways the community can hold them to account.

(f)    Initiatives already underway and how cooperation can enhance them.

(g)  The potential role of community members in positive development.

Ward Areas.

From that the desired outcomes for each ward could be stated as follows:

1.    Historical Education

2.    Environmental improvement and education

3.    Ecological education around species and habitat

4.    The positive social outcomes of community input to the river project

I will take time here to thank Pete Allen from Green Futures who encapsulated most of the above from our wide ranging discussion on the day.

All of the above starts to align us with the requirements of the WREN Biodiversity fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund. There is still a long way to go but we are starting to pull a lot of small items together which will eventually make a pretty impressive whole project for a substantial bid.

If people have ideas in the meantime that they want to throw in to the mix please let me know.

John Mooney

Latest Report to Fair Share

Activities undertaken: Community Development West Marsh

1. Children and Young People. Thanks to the agreed changes in approach to the fundingdistribution The Fair Share Youth Funding now has only £904.00 left and there are twopotential projects from schools ‘out clubs’ which are looking to apply for this money via their pupils. We now also have access to   Councillors Ward Funding in £250.00 lots and although this has no age limits on it, it means that one of the local young people’s football teams has successfully secured some funding for entrance fees to leagues and other competitions.

The Fair Share fund has enabled a local basketball team to buy a strip and ensure everyone who is interested can take part on the same terms. It has also been possible this quarter to support an individual young man in attending a drama summer school and we have also supported another young man to take part as a steward in a major youth sports event in Sheffield.

JM and Councillor Billard are also currently supporting the members of the Parent’s Views Committee at the Macaulay Children’s Centre to put together a kid’s Olympics next summer.

JO continues to support the Art group which has been involved in a community education

process around alcohol and smoking and the Dance Group which remains strong. JO and PH continue to engage local young people in looking at developments and one of the buildings

under the scrutiny of WMF is being looked at as a possible dedicated youth centre.

2. People with Disabilities and Long Term Illness. The Health Inequalities Group continues to meet and Councillor Billard and I are regular attendees. The progress to action is slower than we would like but the suggestions from partners seem to point to supporting community initiatives on the ground, like the Older People’s collaborative and the successful engagement of young people in a peer education role. This will also represent a pilot for Community Based Budgeting where resources allow from the Local Authority and GP consortia.

It is also apparent that Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) as a model for

progressing this is now the accepted way forward and we are looking at securing some funding

via the Local Authority to provide training to embed this in the community.

3. Older People. Two groups have been supported to get Ward Councillor Funding for their on-going costs one to do some maintenance work to their centre and the other to ensure their Christmas lunch goes well.
4. West Marsh Forward JM has now gained agreement from the group to look at how they will progress at the end of the funding via Fair Share. There has been a meeting called by the Chair to look at how the group can progress to being a Community Development Charity and therefore be in a position to apply for funding to employ its own Community Development worker. The aim being to have a draft funding bid reflecting community needs and plans by the end of December to be put to potential funders in the New Year. This will also mean a Ward Plan to coincide with the Locality Bill becoming law which will include housing, environmental and planning issues along with community use of local assets. There are now three buildings in the area under consideration for community management which will be discussed in detail at the next meeting. It was also suggested that in order to facilitate more community involvement there could be some meetings which are held to suit those with specific issues and ideas and that these would be focussed around areas like transport and crime and disorder. The committee also considered holding some of the WMF meetings during the day in order to be as inclusive as possible of all members of the community.

5. Friends of the Freshney There have been some major developments around the Freshney during the last quarter there was input from 30 volunteers to clear the banks of weeds over several days. This resulted in the Council increasing their input and a huge and welcome difference was made which was appreciated by the residents. As always on the West Marsh this led to a difference of opinion about approach to the care and maintenance of the river with FoF members being very clear that there should be continued pressure put on the authorities with responsibility to carry out the work they are responsible for. A meeting was held on the 29^th September with people from all the wards that the river runs through to look at what the community could positively contribute.The outcome of the meeting was that FoF would continue to apply pressure to the Council and the Environment Agency and the other groups would look at where the community could usefully get involved. This led to the Anglers Group (newly formed)who will negotiate with the council for the management responsibility of fishing rights along the stretch of river the council is responsible for in the West Marsh.

The group from Laceby will look at talking to Land Owners along the rural stretch of the river

to see if they would like to be involved.

Youth Service would use some funding they have to involve young people in a film project along the river to celebrate the good parts and raise awareness of the bad parts.

The group from Freshney Ward would look at the River Walk and Green Futures would be involved in the planning of external funding applications for maintenance and improvement.

6. Ward Councillors. JM and Councillor Billard have been working alongside those interested in getting involved in the River Freshney project and have supported a new Anglers Group in forming their constitution and Councillor Billard is helping with negotiations with the Council around fishing rights. As mentioned the Councillors have now initiated a £5000 fund to be applied for in £250 lots by local community groups and brought to the WMF funding group for a decision. The Councillors also hold another £10,000 which will be dealt with on a negotiated basis and taking in to account an eventual Ward plan.

7. Town Centre and Businesses. KE has put a lot of work in to developing an online tool for community use which should provide a good platform for local and Town Centre businesses to communicate with the local community and also offer a useful advertising platform for smaller businesses which rely on local community support.
8. Wider Community Development. JM, JO and PH are now involved in fortnightly meetings with the NELSP Neighbourhood Coordinators and the Council Head of Service of the Safer and Stronger Communities Partnership and are also involved with the Community Development Networking days held once a quarter. This helps to keep plans in the Ward area on the wider agenda and is essential in knowing who is providing support from partner agencies so that cooperative work is at the centre of plans in the West Marsh.

The Health Inequalities meeting has taken place and although progress is slow it is still intended to reach an agreed strategy around a project on the West Marsh which will address the serious inequalities for the health of residents.
As soon as there is a definite outline to the project I will let people know.

The River Freshney meeting on the 29th of September took place and although the turnout was not as large as expected there were some really positive suggestions about how we might look at tackling problems right along the Freshney. We are looking to start with a film documenting the current condition of the river and asking the residents along its course about their interests in helping develop and protect the river.
We also discussed the potential of a group which would represent all the wards along the course of the river which would be a more effective process when considering large funding bids.
I am in the process of editing the discussions which took place and will put a version here when its ready.

Since I last posted there has been a lot of discussion about the West Marsh at the Forward meetings and in Community venues about the issues regarding the long term future of Community Development on the West Marsh. It has become apparent that there are a number of areas which require action the first being getting West Marsh Forward to the point where it can effectively apply for funding to employ its own Community Development Worker. At the last meeting the Executive agreed to meet with me to see if the current constitution was fit for purpose and to look at what changes might be needed in order to be in the best position to apply for charity status if funding became available which would put them over the limit for registration.
This will take place on the 6th of October.
My hope is that we can then start to concentrate on getting more involvement at the meetings as at the last meeting some residents from Elsenham road attended and this did give another dimension to the process of the meeting and gave rise to a series of concerns which need urgent attention which had not been quite so clear at previous meetings.
This means that we need a plan arising from the meeting on the 6th as to what we can do about long term solutions to problems as well as attending to the urgent problems that occur and are causing problems for residents right now.