Pickles praises town's progress on community pilot scheme
Monday, 16th July 2012.
The Government's communities supremo, Eric Pickles, has given Haverhill a pat on the back for the first stage of its participation in a national pilot scheme.
In a letter addressed to Anne Gower, chairman of the One Haverhill board, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government praised the work ONE Haverhill has completed to date.
Mr Pickles wrote to express his gratitude for the work being done in Haverhill by local organisations engaged in the community budgeting pilot.
He said: “With the Neighbourhood Community Budgets I want to help areas like yours move from aspiration into the reality of decentralising power.
"It is clear that a range of approaches are developing that reflect the different dynamics of your neighbourhoods which is just as it should be. We have also been struck by your positive feedback on how we are supporting each of the pilots to make progress.
“You are at the heart of our efforts to decentralise power from Whitehall to local councils and communities, helping people to take charge of their own affairs.”
Mr Pickles also said he was looking forward to seeing the operational plans setting out the focus of Haverhill Community Budget which will be sent to the department in September and presented to Whitehall in October by ONE Haverhill.
The letter was also copied to the leaders of the borough and the county councils, Cllr John Griffiths and Cllr Mark Bee.
Cllr Gower sent a response immediately thanking Eric Pickles for his letter and assuring him that Haverhill intended to make the most of the opportunity they have been given by being chosen as one of the pilot areas.
Haverhill has been chosen by the Government as one of just 12 areas in the UK to pilot a new way of giving local communities more say in the way budgets are spent.
Community budgeting provides a real opportunity for people in Haverhill to directly influence how and where money is spent in the town.
All organisations will still hold their funding and their responsibilities, but the board will work on bringing organisations round the table to ensure that the money is spent locally to provide the services local people value the most.
To date ONE Haverhill has researched the services that are delivered in Haverhill under the two key areas of public funding which the Haverhill Community Budget will address first, money spent on improving the physical environment and opportunities for young people.
They are now entering an intense community engagement phase where ONE Haverhill will ask the local community which of these services the board should be looking at to improve in the future as part of this project.
Having prioritised these, ONE Haverhill will work with the service providers and community to understand how much money is spent on them, why they are delivered in the way they are, and how ONE Haverhill could change them for better.
There will be a series of consultations involving surveys and interviews at public events, the first of which took place on Saturday, July 7, as people in the town gathered for the torch relay.
In a letter addressed to Anne Gower, chairman of the One Haverhill board, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government praised the work ONE Haverhill has completed to date.
Mr Pickles wrote to express his gratitude for the work being done in Haverhill by local organisations engaged in the community budgeting pilot.
He said: “With the Neighbourhood Community Budgets I want to help areas like yours move from aspiration into the reality of decentralising power.
"It is clear that a range of approaches are developing that reflect the different dynamics of your neighbourhoods which is just as it should be. We have also been struck by your positive feedback on how we are supporting each of the pilots to make progress.
“You are at the heart of our efforts to decentralise power from Whitehall to local councils and communities, helping people to take charge of their own affairs.”
Mr Pickles also said he was looking forward to seeing the operational plans setting out the focus of Haverhill Community Budget which will be sent to the department in September and presented to Whitehall in October by ONE Haverhill.
The letter was also copied to the leaders of the borough and the county councils, Cllr John Griffiths and Cllr Mark Bee.
Cllr Gower sent a response immediately thanking Eric Pickles for his letter and assuring him that Haverhill intended to make the most of the opportunity they have been given by being chosen as one of the pilot areas.
Haverhill has been chosen by the Government as one of just 12 areas in the UK to pilot a new way of giving local communities more say in the way budgets are spent.
Community budgeting provides a real opportunity for people in Haverhill to directly influence how and where money is spent in the town.
All organisations will still hold their funding and their responsibilities, but the board will work on bringing organisations round the table to ensure that the money is spent locally to provide the services local people value the most.
To date ONE Haverhill has researched the services that are delivered in Haverhill under the two key areas of public funding which the Haverhill Community Budget will address first, money spent on improving the physical environment and opportunities for young people.
They are now entering an intense community engagement phase where ONE Haverhill will ask the local community which of these services the board should be looking at to improve in the future as part of this project.
Having prioritised these, ONE Haverhill will work with the service providers and community to understand how much money is spent on them, why they are delivered in the way they are, and how ONE Haverhill could change them for better.
There will be a series of consultations involving surveys and interviews at public events, the first of which took place on Saturday, July 7, as people in the town gathered for the torch relay.
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