Regeneration funding cut fear

11:52am Friday 17th August 2007

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VITAL neighbourhood managers could be lost in a review of regeneration funding, councillors have warned.

All of Pendle's housing market renewal areas in Colne, Nelson and Brierfield have dedicated neighbourhood management schemes, costing £500,000 every year funded by cash from government housing initiative Elevate.

The teams work with the council, police and social services as well as other bodies to tackle problems like untidy land, anti-social behaviour and nuisance.

But Pendle Council's Executive Committee was told that other areas where the pilot scheme had been introduced had been less successful than Pendle's, and Elevate was now considering slashing the funding.

The council is now set to host a seminar for authorities across Lancashire, showing the scheme's success here.

Councillor David Whipp said: "The neighbourhood managers are doing a fantastic job of improving their areas, and the police have recognised their value in reducing crime and improving people's perception of the area.

"I'm not pretending everything's perfect by any means, but people have started doing the job and they have got results and if they are allowed to carry on we will have far better areas than we had five years ago, and indeed better areas than we have now.

"The residents are beginning to see the benefit of all this work and we don't want to have to stop that because then there would be a great danger that services would slide backward.

"The very great fear is that Elevate could pull the plug on the funding. We believe there is an enormous amount of evidence that shows the value it has and the improvement it makes to towns, consequently restoring confidence in the housing market as well, but it may well be that they don't agree with our assessment."

The seminar will be held in Pendle in early November, and leader of the council Alan Davies said he hoped it would show other areas what could be achieved through neighbourhood management.