News from Ewood Ward Labour Councillors Maureen Bateson & Florence Oldfield
Please see our latest update for news and activities in Ewood Ward. As local Cllrs we are very involved with the local community as well as all our commitments on the Council. We are available at all times to deal with individual problems and as we serve a large geographical area it means the issues we deal with are very diverse.
We also realise that at this time of the savage cuts the Coalition Government are inflicting on our area to both the Council and residents individually many local people will see the services they are used to and expect reduced or disappear. We are working with our Labour colleagues on the council to minimise these effects but given the scale of cuts this will prove difficult.
We are keen to get as many local people involved with the community as possible both to help within the community but also to give their voice to the problems they see in the area. The Labour controlled council are considering whether current arrangements are sufficiently engaging residents at the ward level and are looking to improve and involve more local people.
WARD UPDATES – January 2011
Infirmary Housing Market Renewal Area
Many of the new houses provide by Places for People are now complete and occupied in the area, the phase on Infirmary Street was delayed because of the builder going into administration. Work is on site improving properties on Hall Street. The park and play areas are now almost complete.
Unfortunately the Tory led government have now cut all funding for the HMR programme which will mean the end of the programme; Housing Associations have also had severe cuts to their funding.
The newly built Health Centre on Infirmary Street has also been the victim of cuts and the future of the centre is now in jeopardy. This centre was important to the area and we are lobbying the Health Authority for an early decision on its future
Ewood Caravan Site
The Neighbourhood Bus attendance each Tuesday on the site is threatened by the uncertainty of funding for this resource. This is in addition to the difficulty of getting volunteers to drive the bus. To maintain support & contact with the group the session will switch to a Wednesday afternoon, using Mill Hill Community Centre. The improvements for the play / kick-about area on the site are also still in the pipeline.
SW Community Growing Project
The project is now reaching out from the Ewood Allotment site base to support the Hollin St Project (see above), working also with Meadowhead Infants School.
Hollins St Project – a new Cash & Carrots course will commence from 26/1/11, which will not be restricted to those living on site. This course will also develop stronger links with the SW Community Growing Project. A visit to the allotment site has already been arranged with a view to creating a growing plot at the project, supported with funding from Twin Valley Homes.
Kirby Road Play Area
Plans and contracts have been drawn up for the football area at Kirby Road to put in drainage and a surface that will better provide an area for local youngsters to play ball games on.
Livesey Childrens and all Age centre
The luncheon club continue to meet at Livesey Children’s and All Age Centre on Monday’s and activities are available after lunch. These include things such as bingo, cards, pool, physical activity and a opportunity to socialise.
Other activities at the centre include The Livesey Youth Group, Morris Dancing, tea time club Kickboxing, Fantasy art, Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Church services for full derails contact the centre on 01254507950.
A meeting with Young People Services, Jamie Hopwood from Blackburn Rovers Trust and Livesey Children and All Age Centre looked at how they could improve working together in delivering services to young people in the area. Discussions have taken place with Fernhurst School to use some of the facilities there for young people and other residents
Blackburn Rovers Community Trust at Ewood Park are running activities for people 50+ as part of the Active8 scheme. Taking place:
Mondays, Line Dancing, 10am – 11am
Tuesdays, Jack’s Walkers, 10am – 11am
Thursdays, Tea Dance, 1pm – 3pm
Ivy St Community Centre
The centre continues to extend its programme of activities including, parents and tots, tea time clubs, youth club, Morris Dancers Majorettes, Men’s group, Arts and Crafts Tea Dances, Birthday Parties, Social Nights, Allotment group, etc, for a full programme please contact the centre Tel 01254 55977
A detailed training programme for the management group wishing to take over the running of the community centres has commenced.
A number of volunteers have come forward to participate in this essential training, which covers things like health and safety, financial planning, marketing & publicity, business planning, running activities and events, recruiting & retaining volunteers, contracts & licenses, etc. we are continuing to work with this group and to help out as volunteers in the centre
MAPS Meetings (Multi Agency Problem Solving) – continue to alternate between the Infirmary area & Livesey. Whilst the Ivy St meetings consistently draw a higher turn out than Livesey, the latter is being well supported by the community association there. A regular item at the meetings has been the monitoring of match day parking, which has varied in nuisance levels for residents across different parts of the ward. The meetings also regularly raise traffic concerns around Livesey Branch Rd & on Heys Lane. The SW Neighbourhood Police team have been active on Heys Lane recently with the teams mobile speed gun.
Future Upcoming Meeting Dates
MAPS meetings start time 6pm
17/2/11 Ewood – Infirmary area (at Ivy St Community Centre)
14/3/11 Ewood – Livesey area (at Livesey All Age Centre, Andrew Close)
21/4/11 Ewood – Infirmary area (at Ivy St Community Centre)
9/5/11 Ewood – Livesey area (at Livesey All Age Centre, Andrew Close)
Ewood Working Group
Meet every three months next meeting is on the 24/1/11 Ewood Working Group includes Ward Cllrs, Council staff, Blackburn Rovers, Transdev, local reps from Ewood Community association, Police, Parking Services etc, we meet to discuss and raise issues that relate to football match day and problems that have been raised with us or future developments.
Community Associations and Ward surgeries
Livesey All age Centre 1st Monday of the month at 7pm
Ivy Street Community Centre 3rdd Monday of the month 7pm
Blues Bar Ewood Park 3rd Friday of the month 6.30pm
Local update from Ewood Ward Labour Councillors
14th April 2010
Public Transport
Residents continue to complain to us about the bus services in parts of the area particularly the loss of the former no 3 through Ewood to Feniscowles, the number 4 that went through Hamilton Street and the reduction in services to the Infirmary area. Many people raise the issue of the Whalley Ranger Bus and claim that hardly anybody seems to use it so why can Transdev support this service and not theirs?
We have raised these issues on many occasions with Transdev, firstly they say they are waiting the retendering of a number of council contracts and until they know the results of that they can’t review any further services. The Council is also undertaking a review of public transport services in the borough, a review that was put forward over a year ago by the Labour Group and yet we are still awaiting the full feedback and proposals from it.
The issue of the Whalley Ranger service was we are told by Transdev a pilot scheme that is now being reviewed and likely to be incorporated into another existing service.
As local Cllrs we do at every opportunity raise the issue about our local services, we listen to peoples concerns, we have arranged for additional and new sites for bus stops to help alleviate some of the problems faced by local people and we have put forward suggestions were we believe we could accommodate and integrate services and will continue to press on this matter.
Area Clean ups
Over the past few weeks we have been involved with a number of area clean ups and Beat Sweeps, including the Livesey estate, Albion Car parks, serving of notices and warrants in the Infirmary area. The latest clean up will be in the Infirmary area were we have worked with the local community, officers to tackle once again problems of rubbish, abandoned bins, collection of bulky waste, to hopefully make an in road into some of the more problem areas.
Wolseley Street play area
Having now received the final amount of funding for the play area at Wolseley Street we arranged for officers to send out a letter confirming the findings of the original consultation that the number one priority for spending that money was the drainage of the football pitch. Following feedback this work will now be undertaken over the coming months.
United Utilities Work
We are holding ongoing discussions with United Utilities and all other affected parties about the proposed works United Utilities want to undertake on three sites within the ward, the sites are at the bottom of Infirmary Street, adjacent to the Aqueduct pub on Bolton Road and on the smaller of the car parks at Ewood opposite the Thwaites theatre. These works will take some months and will obviously cause a large amount of inconvenience, the work is due to start in May but because of further problems associated with the Aqueduct site this is likely to be delayed and we are due to have further updates later this month.
Traffic Management on Match Days
There are changes taking place as to how football traffic is managed on match days and the operating and level of management is now being determined in the main by the council and the football club, in consultation with the police.
We have been working with the Council the club and the police to look at these issues,and meet regularly to discuss these issues. The level of any police operation will be determined on a match by match basis by the club and the council. Therefore a number of areas will be changed for example the council will cone areas, but only those they feel necessary, the control of traffic lights will be determined by the council, enforcement will be by the council in the majority of cases. We have also had complaints about the abuse of parking in residents parking schemes and we have fed these concerns back to the council.
Fuller details will become available as the results of ongoing pilot schemes that are taking place this season are analysed and put in place for next season
Currently work is also on going to identify new sites for parking on match days as next season will see loss of car parking spaces on the main car parks due to the work of United Utilities and the loss of parking at Darwen Vale School, already some sites have been found but we need to look for more now that we know Rovers will still be in the Premiership next season.
Highfield Park
The bowling pavilion has recently been renovated on Highfield Park, unfortunately this was done without any proper consultation with local Cllrs or the community, only now that it is finished are the community being asked how they want to use it. Unfortunately there was no money to furnish it or put any heating in etc, therefore with the help of the local Community Association, we are looking at the best way to make use of the building so different groups of residents can get best use of it, along with the development of the park area we believe we will be able to create an area for the whole community.
Ivy Street Community Centre
Since the redevelopment of Ivy Street Centre numerous groups are now using the centre and there have been a number of successful social evenings taking place. It has been really pleasing to see an increase in the number of volunteers getting involved and particularly successful has been the introduction of a men’s group and the events they are putting on.
It has been a real pleasure to work with these new groups and we hope we can go from strength to strength, however we are concerned about the lack of support from the Tory led Council to withdrawal of funding to the Community Association to requests for a new entrance to the centre. This week alone Labour Cllr Maureen Bateson have had to convene a meeting to get agreement to put some signs up for the centre, as lots of people and organisations were having difficulty finding the centre or the correct entrance.
As local Cllrs we are also campaigning for lights to be put on the car park adjacent to the centre, new notice boards for centre and new directional signs to places within the Infirmary area.
New Health Centre
The new Health Centre in the Infirmary area has been completed for some time now, unfortunately it still remains empty. We have pressed the PCT for an answer as to when this would be open as it is now suffering some vandalism. Despite promises nothing has yet happened we are told that a tender for up to four doctors to operate from there has been advertised but still we await services to start from there.
Ramp at Livesey Childrens Centre
After a long fight by the Community Association aided by local Cllrs and funding from Twin Valley a new slope to aid access into the centre that replaces the steep steps at the rear of the centre boundary is now being installed. A great job was done by members of the Association particularly Florence Oldfield and Margaret Maxwell for their persistence in obtaining the funding and the installation of the ramp, we are sure many elderly, disabled, and families will be grateful for this ramp.
Pennine Reach
Now the initial agreement to the investment in improved public transport along the A666 corridor has been received we will now redouble our efforts to challenge what we believe are many fundamental problems in the proposals as put forward by the Tory led Council. I have been informed only this week by some officers they see no need for a further public consultation though there will be more detail in schemes being drawn up which may involve some changes. If officers and the current Tory led administration feel there is no need to consult as Local Labour Cllrs we do and will ensure we do call a publish meeting so residents will be allowed to comment and have there say.
