Senior councillors are due to give their formal backing to a £20 million project to boost Whitehawk area at a meeting next week.
Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet is due to agree the terms of a 10-year deal worth £2 million a year at a meeting on Thursday (19 March).
The project is part of the government’s Pride in Place programme aimed at reviving and regenerating some of the more deprived parts of the country.
The areas to be covered by the project include Whitehawk, Manor Farm, Craven Vale, the Bristol Estate and the Pankhurst estate.
Labour councillor Gill Williams, who represents Whitehawk and Marina ward, encouraged people in the area to get involved when she spoke at a housing management panel on Wednesday (11 March).
The council is looking for someone to chair a proposed neighbourhood board, which would be expected to set local priorities, and for others to serve alongside the successful candidate
The neighbourhood board would be responsible for developing a 10-year regeneration plan, with the council responsible for ensuring that the £20 million is spent and accounted for properly.
The funding will come from a government department, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Councillor Williams said: “It allows communities to spend the money on the projects that matter to them.
“It’s community-led because we’re going to have a board of local people, with residents doing the decision-making and able to have their say on the future of our neighbourhood.
“It’s empowering people, essentially, to build the skills and confidence they need as well as to deliver change.”
Pride in Place in Whitehawk can use the money to improve open spaces and community facilities, strengthen services and for the long-term benefit of the community.
The deadline to apply to be chair of the neighbourhood board – and a champion for Whitehawk – is on Sunday (15 March).
The board is expected to include the ward councillors – Gill Williams and her Labour colleague David McGregor and the Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, Chris Ward.
At least 51 per cent of the board’s members should be people living in the area.
The council’s cabinet is due to discuss the project in a meeting at Hove Town Hall at 2pm on Thursday (19 March). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast.
To apply to become chair, send a two-page CV and a covering letter of up to three pages, with details of motivation and links to Whitehawk, to prideinplace@brighton-hove.gov.uk by midnight on Sunday 15 March.
Why is Chris Ward involved? He does not respond to emails and ignores any requests. He is just a fair-weather opportunist who rubber-stamps Government policies and cares nothing for his constituents. He certainly doesn’t represent them.
Because it’s Government policy that the local MP be on the board.
Thank you for that information, I was unaware of this policy. No doubt the self-publicist will be in every photo claiming personal success. Maybe if he concentrated on replying to emails, he wouldn’t have so many photo opportunities. Perhaps organise a cardboard cut-out? It would be better at representing local views in Parliament.
By the tone of the multiple comments you put in this paper no wonder he ignores you. Get a hobby
My opinion of Chris Ward is through personal experience. I was not delighted with him being parachuted in but he started with a clean slate in my book. Sadly, he has failed to engage with sensible debate and offers no reasoning for his voting patterns. If stonewalling was an Olympic sport, we could have a gold medal candidate in our midst. If you feel that is the way a democratically elected representative should behave, I pity your low expectations. On the other hand, I think we should hold MP’s to the highest of standards and will not cease to criticise incompetence or complacency wherever I see it. Also I will encourage development and learning and am willing to support anyone who strives to higher ideals. I wish you well on your journey.
Hey Ann, you might find this helpful; just expanding on what Chris has said. Much of what we can expect is already written down here in the prospectus. We’re also in phase 2, so there are a lot of places that are ahead of us in the timeline of things, which I’m hoping the Board uses as a way of framing the way forward.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pride-in-place-programme-prospectus
Corruption incoming. Giving Chris Ward a say over how £20m is going to be spent is like giving a fly a turd and expecting them not to swarm all over it.
Looking forward to seeing the good this can do.
I sincerely hope that this will be of some benefit to the community. I was raised on “The Manor!” I followed your link to what we could possibly expect but I don’t see anything that “Chris” has said. I have lost confidence in him as he has repeatedly failed to respond to reasonable questions, engage in discussion and any information he has disseminated is only to enhance his own opinion of himself and to advance his own career. He comes across as a narcissistic lickspittle who cannot form an opinion contrary to party lines. I am not alone in my disappointment in him. If you can point to something meritorious in his parliamentarism then please educate me. I know that we both want what is the best for this country and the community going forward. We often agree on issues and I think that you have the best of intentions at heart. You obviously have a better grasp of political procedures and local government law than I do. In the interim, I will continue to hold all politicians, “advisors, consultants, experts,” wannabes and their ilk to the highest of standards.
Asking questions and scrutinising is always important, and you’re right his voting record is to follow party lines. He’s also has the additional role of parliamentary secretary to the cabinet; I believe his remit at the moment has been on improving procurement – massively boring technical subject, but an important one for business and SMEs in particular.
If his role is to empower residents of the to-be-established neighbourhood board, and use his position to promote and encourage people to apply for this grant funding, I would be happy with that personally.
I believe the ex officio board members should be facilitators, more than anything. There’s an opportunity for a truly ground up approach here.
Sadly more tax payers money being pumped into these areas. I still recall New Deal money worth £47.2 million being given to this area including moulsecoomb and saunders park. The money was meant to work alongside council money creating new and innovative ideas but soon got absorbed into local authority spending ! Whats to say this new money will be any better managed ? Perhaps an independant body would be better to over see all spending ?
…like a neighbourhood board of people from Whitehawk?
Fair point. If the neighbourhood board really is mostly local residents and actually has decision-making power, it could work.
People are cautious because large regeneration funds in the past didn’t always deliver what was promised locally. If this £20m is transparent and genuinely community-led, then it’s worth residents getting involved to make sure the money goes where it’s most needed.