Yourcumbria Winter 2008
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The clear plastic wrap used on this issue of YourCumbria is biodegradable Winter 2008 Making the local link Feeling Your one stop shop for local services the crunch Together we can Could Citizens Advice help you? Celebrating our service users and employees visit yourcumbria.org.uk for regular updates on the issues affecting you Welcome to YourCumbria 19 magazine You may have read and heard a lot about changes in the Leadership of the county council, which have certainly been challenging for all of us! But, as I hope this issue of Your Cumbria shows, we’ve been knuckling down and getting on with business as usual. Everyone has been determined to continue providing the best possible services to the people who need them. That’s why we are working with our partners to open up Local Links centres in every Contents town across the county. The first one – in Alston – is already open and you can read all about how we worked with Making the local link Improving the community the community to create it. 04 Your one stop shop for 15 Tell us what needs to be done In fact the whole theme of local services in your area this magazine is about how to work together with you to Self directed support Crafty beggars improve our service and get to 09 More control for service 19 What does recycling mean grips with the things that you users to you? think are most important. It is vital that we hear your Over 100 years of Your diary views. We are currently carrying 10 adventure 20 Your guide to events around out a big survey to find out Volunteers needed for the county what you think about the place Scouts in Cumbria you live and the services you Your A–Z receive. If you do receive one Coastal cleaners 23 Your complete guide to please take the time to fill it in. 11 Silloth Women’s Institute services in Cumbria We are listening. do their bit Feeling the crunch 14 Could Citizens Advice help you? Your Cumbria on CD! Stuart Young If you would like an audio CD of Leader of this magazine call 01228 606304 Cumbria County Council What’s the cost? Each YourCumbria costs around 18p to produce and deliver to your door. YourCumbria We print on recycled paper. Please recycle the magazine when you have finished reading it. produced by Any comments? Please contact the editor on 01228 221008 or email [email protected] 3cStudio.co.uk YourNews Also Firework included ... safety We’re ready, are you? Last year, Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service was called to approximately 140 bonfire related incidents in the weeks leading up to and including 5 November. Cumbria’s Chief Fire Officer Dominic Harrison said: “We want Included with this issue is people to celebrate this year’s Bonfire Night in the safest way possible a guide to planning for an by attending organised public firework displays which are much safer, emergency. It’s packed with more entertaining and a lot more cost effective. useful information that’s “For people who will continue to buy fireworks for private displays, been put together following we urge them to follow a few simple safety do’s and don’ts.” comments from the public. There are also a few • If you are holding your own event, keep fireworks in a closed metal box blank spaces for you and and take them out one at a time. your household to fill in and • Follow the manufacturers’ instructions on each firework. Read them by checklists to make sure you’re torchlight – never by naked flame. doing everything you can to • Light fireworks at arm’s length using a safety firework lighter or fuse wick. prepare for an emergency. • Stand back after lighting. Take a little time out now to • Never go back to a firework once lit. complete your guide and keep • Used fireworks should be collected after the display with care. it somewhere safe. Douse with water, bury or place in a metal container. For more information • Keep children under control. visit cumbria.gov.uk/ • Keep pets indoors. emergency • For an emergency keep buckets of water, the garden hose or a fire extinguisher ready. • Site bonfires well away from houses, garages, sheds, fences, overhead cables, trees and shrubs and always away from fireworks. Glovebox • Before lighting the fire, check that no pets or children are hiding inside it. • Build the stack so that it is stable and will not collapse outwards or to guide to one side. winter driving • NEVER use flammable liquids, paraffin or petrol – to light the fire. • Don’t burn foam-filled furniture, aerosols, tins of paint or bottles. Also included with this issue of • Keep everyone away from the fire – especially children, who must be YourCumbria is your glovebox supervised all the time. guide to winter driving. The • Pour water on the embers before leaving. guide features useful tips for winter driving as well as a county map showing which roads will be gritted. There’s even space to add your own Cumbria County Council achieves useful information including Level 3 equality standard! breakdown numbers and tyre pressures. Cumbria County Council is now externally accredited at Level 3 of the Equality Standard for Local Government. The assessment visit was the largest and most Fill it in and keep it ambitious test of the council’s work in this area. So what does this mean for the in your car! people of Cumbria? • People from diverse backgrounds are getting more confident in using our services. • We are starting to address some difficult issues around disabilities and access to employment, transport and services. • We have successfully addressed the needs of Migrant Workers and are starting to make inroads into engaging with other Black and Minority Ethnic communities in the county. For more information about the Equality Standard call 01228 226639. YourCumbria 3 YourNews YourNews The last gasp – Making the S moking under scrutiny moking is one of Cumbria’s Sbiggest killers. Every year 900 Have you ever wished for a quick and easy people in the county die due to smoking related diseases. The Health way to access your council? Then Local Links and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee could be the answer to your prayers. has been looking at what’s being done in Cumbria to help people ocal Links is an exciting project being driven forward by stop smoking and to curb illegal Lall councils in Cumbria, together with a wide range of trading in tobacco. other partners including police and health. Because most people start It’s all about connecting local services right across the smoking before they’re 18 a survey county. Over the next three years there are plans in place by the Cumbria Youth Alliance of to open a Local Link in each major town. They’ll give young people was commissioned. instant access to a wide range of services provided by well The aim was to find out why they trained customer advisors who will be on hand to help you, started to smoke, how they get whatever your query. hold of cigarettes, and what they think about ways to help them stop smoking. The survey found that Alston most young people who smoke do want to give up smoking, but for Wigton different reasons than adults. Our trailblazing first A variety of recommendations Alston was the first of its kind and have come out of the survey, such opened in September to ‘trailblazing’ as getting young people headlines. It brings together, under A jewel in Allerdales crown more involved in the design one roof, Eden District Council and Hot on the heals of Alston, Wigton of stop-smoking publicity. Cumbria County Council providing also opened to a local fanfare in In Cumbria we have a LOkey servicesCAL like the local library October. This fantastic project good NHS service to help and tourist information.links The result brought in £700k of lottery funding people stop smoking, and is a project supported by its local into the area thanks to the North extra funding is going into community, together with a major LOAllerdaleCA Partnership.L Now phase this service. But many increase to opening hours and easy one is officiallyli nkopen,s local people organisations and access to services for the residents have easy access to services from individuals also have a of the area. It has also secured the Allerdale Borough Council and role to play in future of an important local listed Cumbria County Council. And the discouraging smoking. building. story doesn’t stop there – look You can see the full out for phase two of this exciting report, The Last Gasp project coming soon. at cumbria.gov.uk/ scrutiny/ keydocuments 4 YourCumbria YourNews YourNews Digital switchover comes to Cumbria ollowing on from the successful Everyone will get around twenty Fdigital TV switchover in of the most popular channels and Copeland last year, Digital UK, has some viewers will be able to see announced details of the switchover around forty channels in total. dates for the rest of Cumbria. After the second date, you will need to have converted your television to digital operation. ITV Border Converting to digital is easy and does not have to cost a great deal If you tune in to ITV Border the of money. A digital box (sometimes switchover starts on 24 June and is called a set-top box) will allow many completed on 22 July 2009. televisions to be converted for as little as around £20. TVs without a SCART plug connection need a ITV Granada digital box which contains an RF Modulator to connect through the If you tune in to ITV Granada the aerial socket.