Produced by Hartlepool Council and wholly funded from advertising Winter 2017 www.hartlepool.gov.uk /hartlepoolcouncil @HpoolCouncil ECONOMIC REGENERATION Hartbeat Winter 2017 P3 MONEY OFF Welcome to the final YOUR COUNCIL edition of Hartbeat Contents Customer Pages 4-5 ECONOMIC TAX BILL for 2017 REGENERATION Services Helping to grow our economy, jobs Connecting you to your Council and skills DISCOUNT AS 2017 draws to a close and Christmas lights illuminate our town, it is a CHILDREN AND Pages 8-9 good time to reflect on Hartlepool YOUNG PEOPLE Helping to build better beginnings Borough Council’s achievements and futures over the last twelve months. This year has been very busy and I’m roof. Community Hub South (Owton Manor, pleased to see so much progress in the Wynyard Road), Community Hub Central Pages 11-13 fantastic projects helping to make Hartlepool a (York Road) and Community Hub North ADULTS vibrant, welcoming and inspiring place to live, (services delivered by West View Advice and Resource Centre, Miers Avenue) offer work, invest and grow up in. Helping adults in Hartlepool In May, Hartlepool Borough Council’s new support and services from a range of different £4m Centre for Independent Living was organisations to make it easier for residents to officially opened to provide improved services access the help they need. I’m pleased to report work is well underway Online, by phone, for adults with disabilities. Page 15 The following month, twelve bold new on £8m of projects to regenerate key parts COMBINED in person pieces of artwork were installed at Hartlepool of our town. Construction has started on a AUTHORITY railway station to provide visitors with a scheme to revitalise the Church Street and Helping to strengthen the Tees Valley stunning welcome to our town. The designs Church Square area and construction has also Are you entitled to it? show popular Hartlepool landmarks, including begun on a scheme to revitalise the Seaton Our website makes it easier for you to contact the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Carew seafront. You can read more about Have you checked? your Council on-line, with more services than Summerhill Country Park, the Heugh Battery these exciting projects on pages 4 and 5. SAFE AND Pages 16-21 ever available at the touch of a button Museum and Hartlepool Marina. Finally, on behalf of everyone at Hartlepool You may be missing out! I was delighted a record-breaking 10,000 Borough Council, I would like to wish you a STRONG COMMUNITIES free swims were enjoyed by Hartlepool Merry Christmas and a peaceful, Helping our communities to prosper You may be able to claim a reduction in do it online at youngsters this summer thanks to the prosperous and Happy New Year. your Council Tax bill – called Local Council Council-run free swims scheme. We first www.hartlepool.gov.uk introduced free swims for under 16s during Tax Support - if you are on a low income or the 2013 summer holiday break to encourage Page 22 are in and out of work or are in receipt of YOUR all children to be active in their early years, COUNCIL certain benefits. Useful Contact Numbers resulting in a higher chance of them staying fit Helping you to get involved and healthy as they grow older. Councillor Christopher Akers-Belcher In July, Hartlepool Borough Council You don’t get Local Council Tax Leader of Hartlepool Borough Council Benefits (01429) 284188 launched three Community Hubs to bring a range of services for local people under one Support automatically if you are Council Tax: Enquiries (01429) 284277 Recovery (01429) 284166 Pages 24-27 claiming Universal Credit - you need HEALTH, SPORT to make a separate claim through Parking and Travel (01429) 523331 AND LEISURE Hartlepool Borough Council. We’ll Waste, Environment and Highways (01429) 523333 New councillors Helping promote residents’ wellbeing also check if your children are Housing (01429) 523336 TWO by-elections have been held for vacant Hartlepool Borough Council comprises of seats on Hartlepool Borough Council. 33 elected Councillors. The current make- Registrars (01429) 523337 entitled to free school meals. Councillor Leisa Claire Smith (Putting up is Labour (19), UKIP (6), Independent Pages 29-30 Social Care: Adults (01429) 523390 Children (01429) 284284 Hartlepool First) was elected to the vacant (2), Local Conservatives (3) and Putting CHRISTMAS To find out if you are eligible Main Council Switchboard (01429) 266522 Seaton Ward seat and the by-election held Hartlepool First (3). OPENING TIMES call (01429) 284188 or for the vacant Victoria Ward seat saw Katie You can find details about your local AND WHAT’S ON Elizabeth Trueman (Labour Party) elected as Councillors at www.hartlepool.gov.uk/ email [email protected] OPENING TIMES a Borough Councillor. councillors Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5.00pm Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm Hartbeat is published by Hartlepool Borough Council and distributed to households Hartbeat is available in Braille and articles can be translated into other languages. For across the Borough free of charge. If you have not received a copy please call information please call (01429) 523578 or email [email protected] (01429) 523578 or email [email protected] Civic Centre, Hartlepool, TS24 8AY To advertise in Hartbeat contact Lesley Palmer Associates on (01642) 760700 In 2018, Hartlepool Borough Council’s Communications and Marketing Team will be or email [email protected] making some changes to Hartbeat and your views and comments are welcome. Cover photograph by Chris Armstrong (07973360227 or [email protected]) P4 ECONOMIC REGENERATION ECONOMIC REGENERATION P5 Big start to town’s regeneration MAJOR plans by Hartlepool Borough Council Church Square is also being given a major uplift. It’s being interchange down to what will be the redeveloped pedestrianised and a large oval event space encircled by trees Hartlepool Waterfront.” to regenerate key parts of the town have got and raised seating will be created in front of Hartlepool Art The Council has also just taken a major step forward in off to a great start, with work now underway Gallery. its plans to transform the Hartlepool Waterfront. There will be a landscaped walkway along Upper Church Street The Council bought the former five-acre Jacksons on £8m of projects. and new road access to the neighbouring Cleveland College of Landing site after it lay dormant for years and has now Art and Design buildings from the top of Church approved a masterplan as the basis for further developing Street. plans for the site and surrounding area to attract investors The work – which will be completed by May and development. 2018 – is being funded by the Tees Valley Combined Authority, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Key features of the masterplan are: the Council. • A new waterfront visitor attraction using the best in People are reminded that, for the duration of the digital and virtual reality technology project, Church Street is closed to through traffic, • A water activity centre offering both water-based with a diversion in place along Tower Street and activities and land-based activities such as climbing Huckelhoven Way. However, the railway station and indoor caving and all the Church Street businesses are open as normal and there is still vehicle and pedestrian • An outdoor events arena for attractions around the access to them. year such as food festivals, displays and music shows Construction has also begun on a £1.3m An artist’s impression of the revitalised Church Square • The expansion of the National Museum of the Royal scheme to revitalise the Seaton Carew seafront. Navy Hartlepool onto the waterfront site A new outdoor leisure park is being created on part of the promenade including the area currently The Seaton improvements – which will be ready for next year’s • A new four-star hotel and restaurants occupied by the paddling pool. It will feature a summer season – have been made possible thanks to a £600,000 If the masterplan is delivered in full, it’s estimated that the new children’s water play area, including ground geysers contribution from the Government’s Coastal Communities Fund and development could create several hundred jobs plus many more in and water tunnels, and there will also be children’s £100,000 from local company Able UK. construction. play equipment, picnic tables and beach huts. In a separate development, a new ten-hole crazy golf course will There will be a phased approach, with an early first phase over A new four metre high glass and steel sculpture be created next to the leisure park by a private investor. the next two years concentrating on the development of leisure by Hartlepool artist Stuart Langley called ‘Waves’, Commenting on each of the projects, Councillor Kevin Cranney, activities and the creation of the all-year-round events space to build An artist’s impression of The BIS reflecting the town’s maritime and industrial Chair of the Council’s Regeneration Services Committee, said: on the success of this summer’s Hartlepool Waterfront Festival on heritage, will be installed near Seaton Reach. “There’s fantastic new talent graduating from Hartlepool’s colleges the site, which attracted over 15,000 people. Improvements are also being made to the and The BIS will help to keep those young people in town, providing Councillor Christopher Akers-Belcher, Leader of the Council, said: Construction has started on a scheme to revitalise the Church art deco clock tower and bus station, including an ideal environment in which new businesses in the creative “With work now underway on the regeneration of Church Street, Street area and transform it into a hub for creative industries.