Central Area Report Neighbourhood Governance Progress Report: February – May 2016
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Central Area Report Neighbourhood Governance Progress Report: February – May 2016 Date: 11th July 2016 Name of Chair: Cllr Mohammed Riaz Reporting Officer: Marek Lubelski This report gives an overview of progress on addressing community priorities in central Luton under the themes of ‘safer and stronger communities’, ‘health and wellbeing’ and ‘environment and economy’ as agreed by local people, councillors and council partners as part of the ‘Your Say, Your Way’ programme. Luton Clinical Commissioning Group Central Area Updates Burglary Reduction Group A sub group of Friends of High Town meets every couple of months to look at how to bring people together and encourage local residents to take more care and pride in the community, which can help to reduce crime/antisocial behaviour. Issues such as fly tipping, dangerous roads, neighbour disputes, High Town and irresponsible private landlords have Community Sports all been raised as problems that are causing significant distress and are being and Arts Centre tackled by working together with local On 20th May the centre hosted a agencies and the council. networking and ‘drop in’ coffee Emma Colclough, Community Safety morning with more than 12 local Partnership Project Officer, has recently community groups, enabling people begun to work with the group to to gain a better understanding explore the creation of ‘Neighbourhood Wardown Park of activities on offer in the Agreements’ – contracts which enable neighbourhood and providing a great local residents to decide on what issues Basketball opportunity to meet the organisers to affect their area and agree on how best A group of young people living around find out about what they do. Luton to work in partnership to solve them. Foodbank, Friends of High Town, the town’s biggest neighbourhood park Emma will be attending the High Town have come together to see what they Near Neighbours, Hope Church, Festival on 2nd July so you can find Flamingo Arts, NOAH, LBC’s Strategic can do about making improvements to out more there or telephone 01582 the basketball area. Currently, although Community Services, Youth Outreach 394263 for more information. and Active Luton were among those the court is usable, due to vandalism the providing support and information. net is constantly being ripped off. Councillor Andy Malcolm was also Working with support from ‘Your Say, pleased to meet with people to Your Way’ and Council Youth Outreach discuss local issues and suggestions Worker Phil Moore, the young people are for improvements. The centre looking into possible funding streams to welcomes everyone and encourages enable them to make the improvements members of the community to they want to see. They will then be able pop in. For more details please to organise tournaments and sessions telephone 01582 419548. and maximise usage of the court. were fortunate to have secured Level Trust funding that delivered ‘Feel Good Shoes’ (and ‘Winter Warmer Coats’ in some cases) to children and young people via local schools and based on actual needs. Denbigh, St Matthews, Norton Road and St Josephs schools all received vouchers to give to families who they felt were clearly struggling financially during the academic year. The aim was to support families so that 1) effective learning could take place, 2) their children and young people could concentrate on their learning and 3) they would feel less Level Trust stigmatised at school. Level Trust is a community organisation that works in There have been many other positive outcomes for the 280 partnership with Luton schools to ensure that children living children who have benefitted from the vouchers, the main in poverty have everything they need to access learning and one being that they have been given the opportunity to thrive achieve their academic potential. in every respect, from experiencing raised levels of self esteem In the last round of PB funding, 3 of the 4 Central Area wards to suffering much reduced levels of discomfort. 2 Stronger and Safer Communities An opportunity to make positive changes in your neighbourhood Do you have an idea that could improve life in your local area? Once all of applications are in there will be a series of ‘decision day’ events where residents will get the chance to If so, we are delighted to announce that £133k has been made vote for the projects they would like to see funded in their available for organisations, community groups and individuals neighbourhoods. across Luton to apply for small grants (up to £1250) for projects which will benefit their local neighbourhoods. Projects we’ve funded in previous years have include local clean-ups and gardening groups, youth development Luton recently launched its new Investment Framework, a 20- opportunities through music, performing arts and sports, year plan for major transformation through inward investment neighbourhood safety initiatives, and local activity sessions to which outlines how we will achieve growth, create jobs for improve community health and wellbeing. local people, drive improvements to health and wellbeing and enhance prosperity across the town. There are a lot of passionate people out there who have fantastic ideas on how to improve life for people in their local We continue to recognise the unique contribution Luton’s communities. If you have a project in mind that you think community groups, volunteers and residents make to this would benefit your neighbourhood, please do get in touch. agenda. This is why applications are now being accepted for local community projects that fit within any of the following priorities and themes: Supporting safe, strong and cohesive communities Improving health and wellbeing Enhancing skills and education For more information contact the community development team on 01582 54 69 85 or email [email protected]; or speak to your local Councillor www.luton.gov.uk/councillors 3 Stronger and Safer Communities Luton’s ‘Big Iftar’ 24th June 2016 A major event to raise awareness and understanding of diverse communities was held in St George’s Square on Friday 24th June. Due to the popularity of Luton’s Big Iftar 2015, admission to this year’s event was by ticket only. Iftar is the daily breaking of the Muslim fast which is observed throughout the daylight hours during the month of Ramadan, which this year started in the first week of June 2016 for 2016 Council Awards approximately 1 month. The CDS, Social Justice and Area Board Teams now form one The ‘Big Iftar’, was organised by Luton Borough Council / team and are based within the Chief Executive’s Department Luton in Harmony / Inspire FM / Chaul End Children’s Centre of Luton Borough Council and are known as the Strategic / LBC / Bedfordshire Police / LCST (Luton Cultural Services Community Services Team, led by Nicola Monk as the Service Trust) and many other community partners invited people Director -Policy, Communities and Engagement. from all communities to join in the breaking of the fast after a The Strategic Community Services team, together with the programme of events in the square. Strategic Commissioning (Leisure and Culture) led by Mike There was a presentation from the Mayor of Luton, Councillor McMahon and PREVENT team were shortlisted for 3 Awards Tahir Khan and various other faith groups and charities before for their work in the Luton Excellence Awards, winning the a meal that was shared with all communities after the fast was “One Council Award” for their work in and across LBC and broken. indeed Luton on cross cutting issues including: The main sponsors for Luton’s ‘Big Iftar’ are Beds and Luton Anti-poverty, Area Boards, Community Cohesion / PREVENT, Community Foundation and the theme of this year’s event was Community Events, Equalities, Community Development (incl. -appropriately enough – “to be the best” which is what we are Participatory Budgeting-Neighbourhood Governance (NG), all striving to be in Luton. Attendees were encouraged to make Welfare Reform, Volunteering etc., promoting their work donations of non-perishable foods for the Luton Foodbank through “Luton in Harmony” / harmony in Luton by: charity. The team supported 30+ Community Events last year such If you would like to attend and or be involved in the event as Luton & Marsh Farm Fireworks, St. George’s Day, Big Iftar, next year or would like further information please contact: Mela, Carnival, 10 community festivals,. helped organise Shohir Uddin, Area Projects and Involvement Officer, Remembrance Events i.e – 10th Anniversary of 7/7, Tunisa and Strategic Community Services, Luton Borough Council, Paris terrorist attacks, as well as co-ordinating & managing Telephone: 01582 548776, Mobile: 07949734069, E-Mail: responses to “Britain’s First” 3 “visits” to Luton [email protected] They enabled the provision of 20,000 +hours of community volunteering +10 corporate volunteering challenges through a range of activities i.e. Dame Kelly Holmes, Public Health, Adult Social Care, Job Fairs, Picnic in the Park, Adult Learning, Carnival, Community clean-up days, festivals, AND were successful in getting 30+volunteers into full-time employment. Finally, they also delivered the NG programme “Your Say Your Way”- across Luton, with more than 1,000 people voting for funding on 130 + local community projects. 4 Stronger and Safer Communities Luton residents joined Clean for the Queen Luton’s communities rallied together to tidy up the town on Friday 4th and Saturday 5th March 2016 as part of the national ‘Clean for the Queen’ campaign. The event in Luton was being organised by local homeless charity Signposts, supported by Love Luton, Luton Borough Council’s Strategic Community Services and The Rotary Club of Luton. Over the two days the team tidied 8 different areas in Luton before finishing with a deep clean of the town centre and a “thank you” from the Mayor of Luton.