Home Page Haverhill News

Haverhill has been linking up with one of Devon's tourism hotspots to compare progress on a pioneering national scheme.

The chairman of ONE Haverhill Board, Anne Gower, met with the lead councillor of Ilfracombe, another community budget area, to compare notes on how each town was progressing with the national pilot.

Ilfracombe, in North Devon, was also chosen as a pilot area and Cllr Ron Ley, leader of Ilfracombe Town Council, met with Anne Gower and locality officer for ONE Haverhill Clair Harvey on Saturday.

Mike Desborough from the Department for Communities and Local Government suggested the two lead councillors met as both places face similar issues and Ilfracombe is the only other pilot to be led by a town council.

Cllr Ley had a tour of the town and then discussed with Clair and Anne how they are working on the community budget, how they are engaging local residents and the different approaches to building a community budget.

There was also an opportunity to discuss projects like the On The Spot youth bus, the library service and the health services situation in Haverhill and the grants given out by the One Haverhill board.

Cllr Gower said: “It was a real joy to give Cllr Ley a tour, a short history of the town and an idea of the future developments and strategies.

"We discussed the similarities between Haverhill and Ilfracombe as well as the differences and the alternative ways we are tackling bringing the community budget pilot project forward.

“Clair and I found it immensely helpful to be able to have an open discussion with Cllr Ley who brought fresh eyes to our pilot and he asked some very incisive questions which gave us a new slant on our thinking and our processes.

"He was very keen to learn about the town and the One Haverhill board and gave some very useful insights into how he and his group are progressing the community budget pilot in Ilfracombe.”

ONE Haverhill has identified two key areas of public funding with the Haverhill Community Budget to look at first, monies spent on improving the physical environment and opportunities for young people.

Local people will decide which of the areas under these headings are most important through a series of consultations involving surveys and interviews at public events. To have your say visit www.onehaverhill.co.uk and fill in ONE Haverhill’s five minute survey.