On Friday last week I spent an hour or so at Brown’s Cafe on the North Promenade at Cleethorpes with a colleague and several members of the Big Local steering group being interviewed by the Telegraph about what impact and activities might come from the Big Local funding.
If you are not aware of the Big Local it is a funding programme that targets areas with multiple deprivation and invests a million pounds over ten years in community initiatives that arise from a community plan for the full description go here.
The thing of real note is the requirement that the neighbourhood produce a community led plan that reflects the thoughts, feelings and ambitions of local residents and stakeholders which is then used in two main ways
- To lead the investment of the money over a 10 year period.
- To engage with partners (local authority, police, health etc..) in a way that gives coherence to the voice of the community.
For me the second reason, whilst less obvious, is just as important as the first as far as the long term community development process is concerned. This is because, whilst it is vitally important to empower the community to do things for themselves, there is a social contract with service providers which needs to be more transparently put in to practice. The Community led Plan should therefore, form a good platform around which to make decisions within the community and between the community and other partners.
The next step for us in North Cleethorpes is to get going with some community planning events open to the whole community which will utilise the Planning for Real process.
If you are aware of other ward or parish areas that would want to develop a community plan then let us know here at the Elms and we will endeavour to get the partnership mobilised to help them do just that.