Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village Big Local Plan 2014 1 1 CONTENTS 2 Big Local in Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village ...................................................................... 3 3 Our area ................................................................................................................................................. 5 4 Our approach ........................................................................................................................................ 8 5 The vision and our priorities ............................................................................................................... 10 6 How we will deliver ............................................................................................................................. 12 7 Managing and monitoring .................................................................................................................. 14 8 Budget and Plan .................................................................................................................................. 17 9 Contacting us / Steering Group profiles .............................................................................................. 20 2 2 BIG LOCAL IN BEECHWOOD, BALLANTYNE AND BIDSTON VILLAGE The Big Local programme is a Big Lottery Fund initiative. Across England it is investing at least £1 million in 150 neighbourhoods, which have been overlooked for funding in the past. Big Local encourages local people to identify their own priorities and invest in activities and ideas that are aimed at making their own area a better place to live now and in the future. Local people shape and drive Big Local in their area. What’s it all about? It’s about bringing together local people, talent, ambitions, ideas, skills, assets and energy in our area to inspire our local community to act. Whether this be through individuals, groups, organisations or partnerships of all of them, the big idea is to make this a better place to live. How does it work? A part of Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village (Wirral) has been selected as a Big Local area. The funding is a charitable endowment, to be spent over 10 years. An independent organisation called Local Trust has been set up to help local areas decide how to spend their allocations. Local Trust organised for a Big Local representative to help local people pull together ideas for making their community a better place to live in, now and in the future. Community Action Wirral(CAW) has been appointed as the ‘Locally 3 Trusted Organisation’ (LTO) - providing administration support and managing the funding for the first stage of the programme. The partnership has agreed, in principle, that CAW should continue to be the LTO into the plan delivery phase and is currently working with them on a Service Level Agreement to capture the features of this future relationship. In order to access the million pound investment, local people have been tasked with developing a ‘Big Local Plan’. After many months of activity and meetings coordinated by the Big Local Interim Steering Group and organised by The Big Local Representative, the Big Local support worker, Beechwood and Ballantyne Community Housing Association, Beechwood Chapel and a Children and Young People’s Group, from people working with youngsters across the area, together with Beechwood Community Trust, we have got there. THIS is our Big Local Plan for Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village and is based exclusively on what people who live and work in the area have said is important in our community. 4 3 OUR AREA Bidston Railway Station Ballantyne Community Centre St Oswald’s Church St Beechwood Recreation Centre Beechwood Ballantyne Housing Association Beechwood Chapel BBCHA Beechwood Community Trust Beechwood Community Association and Beechwood Play and Community Centre. Fender Way Health Centre Figure 1 - Map of Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village – Wirral. 5 Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village in the Wirral, is home to almost 4,000 people. There are many families in the area with a large number of children, young people and people of working age compared to the rest of Wirral. The area is bordered by the M53 motorway to the west and Bidston Hill to the east, with the motorway forming a physical boundary with the neighbouring ward of Upton. The area sits within the western boundaries of both Bidston and Claughton wards and includes two small areas that are both ranked amongst the 10% most deprived areas in England. The area is physically cut-off, forming a natural ‘enclave’ and, despite rail links at either end of the area, is not generally well served with public transport. 6 Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village - In a ‘nutshell’ 39% of people have no There are 3,950 people living qualifications (22% nationally) in BBBV By Year 1, there is a 5% shortfall 66% of people have access to Education & in achievement by pupils against Population the internet skills national average The largest employment sector in 2% of households lack central the area is health & social work heating (3% nationally) The % of people on JSA is 58% of people live in social double the national average housing (18% nationally) Housing Economy There are 17 claimants per job (3 claimants per job nationally) 3,687 (93%) people live in the 44% of children live in ‘out of most deprived 20% of work’ households neighbourhoods in England People claiming mental 52% of children live in poverty (22% nationally) Vulnerable health-related benefits is Deprivation groups more than double the national The number of pension credit average claimants is 2.5 times the national average Reported crime is lower than 46% of households have no car the national average (26% nationally) The reported violent crime 71% of pensioners have no rate is below national average Access & access to a car (59% nationally) Crime 26% increase in alcohol- transport related crime since 2008 29% of people have a limiting long-term illness (20% nationally) The % of people 'satisfied with their neighbourhood' is higher Life expectancy is 5 years than the national average Health & less than the national average Communities wellbeing 41% of people smoke (22% & environment for England) More details can be found at www.vcawirral.org.uk/Beechwood_communityinsight 7 There is a long and effective tradition of community action in the area that this Big Local plan draws upon. Many members of the community have been active for a significant number of years helping others, sorting out problems and trying to build a more effective community to live in. Alongside this, there has emerged a number of longstanding and respected local groups, churches and organisations that have become part of the life of the area. A short history of community action in the area can be found at www.vcawirral.org.uk/xxxxxxxx 4 OUR APPROACH Residents in Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village have identified the need to involve and consult the wider community to ensure the Big Local plan reflects local needs and opportunities. They have also identified that a significant amount of consultation and analysis has already happened in the area, in many different formats and for many different reasons. Some of it was carried out quite recently through local agencies, such as Beechwood, Ballantyne Community Housing Association (BBCHA) , Beechwood Community Trust, and associated with local projects such as the Community Centre transfer. We have an agreed profile for the area which can be accessed online at http://www.localtrust.org.uk/?project=beechwood What we have tried to find out for the purposes of this plan, is not simply what the ‘facts tell us’, but what it is that people want, what they feel the local area needs, what works well and what can be built upon. 8 The steps we have taken to build this plan We ran a series of initial briefings in various venues around the community so that residents and partners could find out more about the Big Local concept, how it could be led by the community and the types of investment it could involve We set up a Children and Young People’s group to ensure that the views of young people would be included from the start (this group led on our logo design competition) We brought together a range of resident applicants, who had responded to the Job Description and Person Specification that we developed at the briefings, to form an interim partnership steering group. The residents then decided which partners they wished to invite to be part of the group We collected and scrutinised targeted statistics that helped us to identify potential priority themes for the Big Local Plan. We used all available sources including the local Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, Ward Profiles, area data, local surveys provided by BBCHA and national data from the Office for National Statistics We organised Visioning and priority setting sessions – local people came together to work more intensively on their ideas and hopes for the area and their initial priorities for action We carried out a programme of 10 interviews with local organisations and activists identifying priority issues in the area from their perspective – this was arranged in partnership with the local community centre Joint Management Committee. The interviews helped to shed light in some 9 detail on a range of issues within the community, relevant trends in service provision and under-exploited opportunities and assets in the area A local survey was