J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 3

CENTELLINS 1

St Helens CEN

Active Citizens programme

Happy new year to all our readers http://sthelenscen.ning.com/

Issue No 1 Jan 2013

St Helens CEN has for a third year been recently involved in supporting the delivery of the Active Citizens programme. In January we will be welcoming a small group of participants from several overseas countries who will be spending a week long study visit in the UK with part of the visit taking place in St Helens. The study visit takes place from 19th -26th January with thirty participants involved and from the 22nd-24th January six of the participants will be visiting in St Helens (in addition to several other locations across the UK) Whilst in St Helens the participants will be visiting a number of local community projects across the area and learning more about local community organisations. CEN is also sending three delegates to the study visit and they in turn will be spending part of the week in London and visiting community projects and organisations in different part of the UK. A full report from the visit will be in the February CEN newsletter.

We would like to wish all our readers a happy new year. We hope that the community sector in St Helens will continue to be a strength in the challenging times we might find ourselves in.

Good luck for all your work in 2013.

http://activecitizens.britishcouncil.org

2

Social MediaOur following on Twitter continues to grow each week. Follow us at: http://twitter.com/StHelensCEN

Community Organisers Programme

St Helens CEN has recently been successful in being accepted on to the community Organisers programme which is being supported nationally by Locality.

CEN is hosting five community organisers who will be working in several locations across St Helens to encourage the development

of more community involvement and action.

For further details and updates please follow the links below:

http://sthelenscommunityorganisers.wordpress.com/ and

https://www.facebook.com/StHelensCommunityOrganisers

Further general information about the community organisers programme can be found at:

http://locality.org.uk/projects/community-organisers/

and

http://www.cocollaborative.org.uk

Centellins 3

Big Local Trust Funding for Wargrave, Newton le Willows

The Wargrave area of Newton-le-Willows is currently one of the areas which is to receive £1 million of funding support from the Big Local Trust

http://www.localtrust.org.uk/?project=wargrave

The Local Trust’s vision of the future is that each area we work with is resilient, confident and a good place to live.

Local Trust’s mission is to enable people to make their communities better places to live. A local Facebook page has been set up as part of the process of

encouraging local people involved:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-Lottery-Wargrave/478291662209901?fref=ts

For more information contact: Sian Jay; sianjay.sj@gmail.com

C E N T E L L I N S

4 Centellins

Protecting Playing Fields – Sport EnglandThe fourth round of this programme opened on 10 December 2012 with a submission deadline of 18 February 2013.  Local authorities, voluntary & community sector organisations, and educational establishments can apply for between £10,000 and £50,000 for projects that help communities maximise the sporting benefits of playing field land. The programme will create, improve and protect playing fields by:•    Improving the condition of pitches•    Creating playing field land (not less than 0.2 hectares)•    Bringing disused playing fields back into use•    Offering support to community and voluntary groups and local authorities to protect

playing fields.

http://www.sportengland.org/funding/protecting_playing_fields.aspx

Small Grants Programme – Sport EnglandThe Sport England Small Grants Programme uses Lottery funding to make awards of between £300 and £10,000 to not-for-profit organisations to help more young people (aged 14+) and adults take and keep a sporting habit for life.Eligible sports must be formally recognised by Sport England and projects completed within 12 months.http://www.sportengland.org/funding/small_grants.aspx

Sharing Heritage – Heritage Lottery FundThis fund is available to not-for-profit groups wanting to explore, share and celebrate their community’s heritage. Activities supported can include events, exhibitions, festivals and celebrations, or producing local history publications, conservation of individual heritage items, volunteer training and support.Start-up grants will also be available to community groups taking responsibility for heritage, to create the right constitutional framework (including the costs of professional advice on legal forms and governance structures) and to assess options in arriving at a strategy for managing the heritage. They may then make a further application for a grant for a project focused on their heritage.Grants will be between £3000 and £10,000 and applications can be made in February 2013.

http://www.hlf.org.uk/HowToApply/programmes/Summaryofprogrammes2013/Pages/Openprogrammes.aspx

C E N T E L L I N S

Centellins 5

Community Right to Build – Homes & Communities AgencyCommunity groups in England (outside Greater London) are invited to apply for a share of the £17.5m fund which is being made available to provide seed corn funding to help groups to formally establish, build up their development proposals and submit a Community Right to Build Order. The funding is available until the end of March 2015 or until funding is fully committed.  It is unlikely that applications made after October 2014 will be successful.  Any community group or parish council can seek to access the funding provided that they have constituted a formal organisation that meets certain basic standards.  Community groups are encouraged to contact Locality in the first instance to discuss their application and development proposals.http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/community-right-to-build

Community Rights Grants Programme – The Social Investment Business GroupFrom 16 July 2012, community groups can apply for funding to help them use the new Community Right to Challenge in the Localism Act. The Right came into force on 27 June and will empower local community organisations to take over a local service that they can run more effectively.  Pre-Feasibility grants between £5,000 and £10,000 are on offer to help organisations build internal capacity. Organisations that can demonstrate a strong potential to compete for public service delivery contracts can apply for feasibility grants of up to £100,000 to help prepare an Expression of Interest or compete in a procurement process.The Grant Programme is an integral part of the Community Right to Challenge Support Programme is particularly keen to help small local organisations build capacity to deliver public service contracts.   Applications for pre-feasibility and feasibility grants from interested organisations will be accepted on a rolling basis.A parallel Community Ownership and Management of Assets Grant Programme (including Right to Bid) opened on 30 July 2012 and also accepts applications for pre-feasibility and feasibility grants on a rolling basis.http://www.thesocialinvestmentbusiness.org/our-funds/communityrights/

Making it easier to set up new Town and Parish Councils – Discussion PaperThe government wants to make it easier to set up new town and parish councils. This discussion paper presents a range of proposals that are intended to help achieve this. Views are sought on these proposals, as well as any other comments or ideas.Any submissions need to be made by 9 January 2013.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-it-easier-to-set-up-new-town-and-

C E N T E L L I N S

6 Centellins

Paths for Communities (P4C) – Natural England

Paths for Communities is a funding scheme set up to develop and enhance the network of Public Rights of Way (PROW) in England in order to deliver benefits to rural areas. Local community partnerships are eligible to bid to Natural England for funds.The aim of P4C is to encourage and support local communities to work with land owners to make improvements to the network of Public Rights of Way. In all cases P4C projects must include some element of new Public Right of Way creation. In most cases projects will include an element of new Bridleway creation but projects that include Footpath creation alone will also be considered where community and economic benefit can be demonstrated.  P4C will operate over the 2 year period from May 2012 to March 2014, with a total fund of £2m.  All agreements will have to be made by December 2013.http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/access/rightsofway/p4c.aspx

Mr Bill Highcock

It is with great sadness that one of the CEN panel members, Mr Bill Highcock recently passed away in December after a short illness. He was 84 years of age. 

Bill served on CEN's panel for several years on behalf of the Rainford Ward and was also a serving parish councillor on Rainford Parish Council for over twenty years serving the Crank ward where he lived. Bill was involved in many organisations including Merseyside Archeological Society, SCARS, Merseyside Victim Support and other local heritage groups. 

Bill was born in St Helens and from a very young age took a great interest in the industrial history of the town.  He worked within the field of engineering at Trafford Park in Manchester for the Aircraft company GEC Electric.

Bill had an avid interest in local history and heritage and was involved in often giving talks to community groups about local archeology and dowsing and over the years produced a number of published scientific papers on various archeological topics of interest. In recent years he was enthusiastically involved in the archeological project at the site of the Stanley Bank Iron Mill in Blackbrook. 

He gave and dedicated much of his life towards community service to help others and the development of civic life in St Helens and epitomised what an active citizen is all about even into 80's.  He will be remembered with great admiration for the countless hours he gave towards supporting and helping many local organisations and will be greatly missed.

May he rest in peace.