Warwickshire News Mine

Dignitaries including Nuneaton MP Bill Olner, Warwickshire County Council’s Labour group leader Cllr June Tandy and Cllr Chris Saint, the county council’s Cabinet member for Economic Development, are to celebrate the achievements of the last three years and to look to the future of Building Sustainable Neighbourhoods. Launched in July 2003, BSN have supported over 100 projects to date, worked with 60 plus community groups, and brought in over £3 million funding in to the area.

Cllr Saint said: “Building Sustainable Neighbourhoods has achieved some great things in a short space of time, winning regional funding for a range of projects that bring life back to communities.”

On Thursday, September 21, a tour has been organised to take in many of the projects made possible thanks to Building Sustainable Neighbourhoods.

Just some of the projects BSN has been involved in include:

- Bedworth Heath Children’s Centre where in Smorrall Lane the children’s centre has been built in conjunction with Spurgeons. It now provides a centre for parents and children to come and boasts a new children’s crèche with integral kitchen and toilet facilities, a new outside play area, a new toilet block, training room and office accommodation for Children’s Centre staff. BSN provided funding, project management support and helped secure additional funding required.
- Get-Set-Go - run by Car-go-Bus this project provides low cost reliable transport service directly linking employment sites with Camp Hill and Bedworth Heath. The service is scheduled to operate early mornings/late evenings and around midday to coincide with shift patterns at these sites using a 16 seater minibus bought and liveried specifically for the project. The bus is fully wheelchair accessible.
- Nuneaton Women’s Multicultural Resource Centre - Nuneaton Women’s Multicultural Resource Centre is a centre which encourages women of all cultural backgrounds to participate in a range of learning and social activities which will empower, build self confidence and provide learning opportunities in IT, ESOL, skills for life and employment skills. BSN helped with funding to employ a co-ordinator and business planning.
- Retail Training Pilot - An idea from Cheers, Job Centre Plus and Nuneaton Training Ltd, who recognised that with the development at the Arena site in Coventry and, especially the Rope Walk centre in Nuneaton there were likely to be a considerable number of retail jobs becoming available for Nuneaton residents. The objective of the course was to provide unemployed people interested in retail work but with no prior experience or knowledge of the sector, some basic industry specific training that would give them a fighting chance of competing with more experienced individuals perhaps already working in the sector.
- Sikh Mission Centre - In order to extend the services they could offer and attract more users into the facility, the Mission was looking to develop an ICT suite providing access to IT equipment and training for the local community. The management committee therefore approached BSN for assistance in delivering that vision. BSN provided funding to carry out the refurbishment and buy the ICT equipment.
- The Nook, a wetland area surrounded by meadow, is situated on the edge of Bedworth Heath close to a residential area.  The land had not been maintained and the habitat and causeway were in need of some attention both to improve the environment for wildlife and make the site safe for people to enjoy.  BSN alongside local residents Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council helped secure a funding package, which was used to create and deliver a major improvement plan for the area. The work concluded with a community tree-planting event at the end of February where local residents were invited to the site to help plant the final trees on site. Over 200 trees were planted on the day and 104 people made dedications in a commemorative book.
- Whittleford Park is 43 hectares of open space lying among some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in Nuneaton. BSN have brought in £200,000 of AWM capital funding to start implementing some of the improvement works identified in a master plan for the area in conjunction with NBBC and the Friends of Whittleford Park. The overall aim of the work is to protect and preserve the Park as an area of green open space which is essential to the well being of local people and invaluable for the wildlife existing within it and passing through it.

Link to WCC