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St Helens CEN

November 2011 NewsletterIssue 1

Helping to empower people and communities by developing active citizenship locally regionally, nationally and internationally.

Suite F1 Millennium House Millennium Centre Corporation Street St Helens WA10 1HJ Tel 074119 31719 infocensthelens@gmail.com http://sthelenscen.ning.com

CEN’s Office has now Moved

The St Helens CEN’s office is now based at Suite F1 Millennium Centre Corporation Street St Helens WA10 1HJ

Our telephone number is now 074119 31719

We look forward to continuing to work from our new office base and supporting community groups and new projects into 2012 and

beyond.

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Office MoveIn late September an opportunity cam available for CEN to move into office premises in the Millennium Centre.

We have been delighted to move into our new offices in spite of the usual upheaval of moving things round. for the last three years CEN was based at 105 Corporation Street which was a great place to be but lacked full disabled access and we believed that in moving forward a smaller disabled access friendly office was a more suitable working environment. we look forward to working with the staff of the Millennium centre and other groups using the Millennium Centre into the future.

Our new address is below:St Helens CEN01744 759390

infocensthelens@gmail.com

http://sthelenscen.ning.com

Suite F1 Millennium Centre Corporation Street St HelensWA10 1HJ

Active Citizen ReturnsFor the past six weeks one of the participants in the exchange visit CEN hosted in June returned to the UK for a second visit to the St Helens area. Taras Turcheniack from Zhydachiv Ukraine wanted to return to find our more about different ecological projects taking place across the North West of England. During his stay he has been working as a volunteer with both St Helens Council Ranger service and Lancashire Wildlife Trust.

One of the volunteers who took part in the programme from University of the Third Age kindly offered to provide accommodation for him during his stay and we are grateful to Ros Clarke and John French for being able to help. Ros visited Ukraine as part of our exchange visit in July and whilst there we were able to visit some of the ecological projects taking place in Zhydachiv.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhydachiv

We wish Taras well on his return to Ukraine and hope to be able to visit him again in Zhydachiv and

see the new ideas be of his visit being put into practice there.

European Appreciative Inquiry Network Manchester Conference 2-4th NovCEN recently took part and played a role in helping to organise the recent appreciative Inquiry Conference held in Manchester between the 2nd and the 4th November.

During early November people have come from all over Europe came together at the Friends Meeting House in Manchester to take part in the conference. Vitally  important questions for the future of our communities, were explored during the week and CEN staff and panel members had the opportunity to attend an Appreciative Inquiry practice developmental session during the week.   

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Trafford Hall Training Courses

Trafford Hall the National Tenants and Residents Resource Centre are running a wide range of low cost courses for community groups and especially tenants and residents groups.

For further details about the courses please go to:

http://www.traffordhall.com

and for specific details about the training programmes:

http://www.traffordhall.com/training/training-for-tenants.aspx

and

http://www.traffordhall.com/media/7329/community%20futures%20flyer%202011-2012%20bw%20final.pdf

Council Tax and Business Rates

Changes

Growing concerns are being expressed about the forthcoming changes to Council Tax benefit, Housing benefit and the potential changes to local government income from Business rates.

At the recent LSP (Local Strategic Partnership) meeting held in early November in St Helens increased concerns to how each of the changes to benefits including Council tax will impact particularly on the poorer and most vulnerable families. St Helens will find it comparatively worse off than other local government areas and the potential changes to the way in which Business rates are used to assist local government finance could put St Helens at a real disadvantage. (As reported earlier in the year in both the St Helens Star and Reporter)

As soon as further details emerge about the proposals with regards to Council Tax and Business rates we will provide an update through the newsletter.

Community Grantsfor Environmental projects

The Grimple's Green Grants scheme is provided and administered by the Green Insurance Company.Funding is intended to help small organisations throughout the UK that want to carry out green, environmentally friendly projects but lack the funds to do so.

http://mfip.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4280&Itemid=27

Green Deal The recent announcement that the feed in tariff for green energy is being cut from 43.3p to 21p per kwh is a blow to those campaigning to tackle fuel poverty across the UK.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/31/feed-in-tariff-cuts-industry

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St.Helens' Got Talent 2011

Talent search gets underway

This month sees the eagerly anticipated return of the borough’s biggest trawl for new talent. 

St Helens’ Got Talent, presented by Riverside Housing and Merseyside Police, has grown substantially over the last five years, engaging with hundreds of young people and families from across the borough.

Auditions are open to anyone aged between 12 and 23 years with a talent to showcase - singers, dancers, musicians and magicians are just some of those being invited to step into the spotlight and wow the judges.

Successful auditions will lead to the next stage - where contestants compete against other young people in their age category. The Grand Final is to be held at the Theatre Royal in St Helens, where young people will perform in front of an audience of 700 people for the chance to win cash prizes.

To audition, simply complete an application form and take it to one of the auditions (listed below) at Birchley St Marys Social Club, Trent Road, Billinge WN5 7QT

Sunday 20 November 11am - 4pm

Sunday 4 December 11am - 4pm

For more information, or to request an application form, emailsthelensgottalent@riverside.org.uk or visitwww.facebook.com/sthelensgottalent.-- 

Olympic Torch St Helens

The Olympic torch will be carried through St Helens next year ahead of the London 2012 Games.

St Helens Council is today celebrating the announcement that the Olympic torch will be coming to the town on June 1 next year.

It will arrive in the borough on its way from Bolton to Liverpool and the news will raise hopes

that a number of local heroes will get the chance to carry it.

As revealed by the Star earlier this year, Andy Reid, the triple amputee soldier whose courage has won national acclaim, and Steve Prescott, the former Saints player who is fighting a remarkable battle with terminal cancer, have both been nominated to be torchbearers.

The pair will find out in December whether they have got the nod to carry the torch.

Community BudgetsSt Helens Council has expressed an interest in the community budget programme which aims to address some of the concerns with working with families facing multiple A Community Budget organises public spending by place, rather than by individual organisations or service. Tackling families with multiple needs is the centrepiece of the Government’s proposals for the first phase of Community Budgets.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/communitybudgetspropspectus

http://www.localleadership.gov.uk/communitybudgets/about/

British Council Active Citizens Programme 2011-2012

St Helens CEN has been successful in applying to partner with the British Council on its Active Citizens programme for a further 12 months.

We have been informed that this year the programme will include exchange visits to Egypt and Jordan as well as hosting a group of people who are involved in supporting community projects from both countries visiting St Helens and North West England as part of the programme.

The British Council want to see the programme being used a springboard for more community projects and we will be commencing the workshop programme on Saturday 26th November.

This programme is great opportunity to think about current needs in the local community, how new projects might be developed and how communities and projects in St Helens can be linked to projects taking place overseas.

Active Citizens is an international development programme taking place in over thirty countries and is growing all the time. Last year fifteen people from St Helens visited community projects in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine and CEN hosted twenty two visitors from across the three countries.

If you would like to take part in the Active Citizens programme please contact us on 01744 759390 or e-mail us at infocensthelens@gmail.com for an application form.

Further details about the programme are on the British Council Active Citizens website at http://activecitizens.britishcouncil.org/ and on the CEN website at

http://sthelenscen.ning.com

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Time Team Task for St HelensPlay your part in history project

St Helens residents are being invited to join a trailblazing local history project – backed by lottery cash – to help highlight the sacrifices and stories of relatives who fought in the First World War.

With the help of St Helens Council, the St Helens Townships Family History Society has been awarded a £40,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to research the history of the St Helens Pals. Pals battalions were specially constituted units of the British Army for men who had enlisted together in local recruiting drives - with the promise of serving alongside their friends, neighbours and work colleagues instead of being allocated to regular army regiments.

The name St Helens Pals tended to be applied to all men from St Helens who fought in the army, but the project will concentrate on the 11th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment - raised by Lord Derby - which became known as The St Helens Pals. The research is being led by military historians Dave Risley and Richard Waring, but it is local people who will hold the key to unearthing much of the material.

Local historian and Project Manager, Peter Harvey explained: “Everyone can take part - by finding out about members of their family who served in the First World War.

Everyone who has any papers, information, photographs or a family story can go along to the Archive Library (in the Gamble Building, Victoria Square) where we will set up a contact register for people to be involved throughout this exciting project.

“We’re delighted with this support and, though most of the work will be done by volunteers, the £40,000 grant will pay for professional support, without which this amazing three year project could not be completed.”

As part of the research around 30 volunteers will be recruited – and trained - to help produce a list of the St Helens Pals. The families of those named will then be asked to tell their stories, passed down through the generations. The aim is to produce a complete biography and picture of each of the men.The material will form part of a new book, The St Helens Pals, which will be printed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War - in 2014. A copy of the book will be given to the volunteers and to those who come forward and contribute family stories. All of the research data will be also be available on the St Helens Townships Family History website by 2014 and information will be shared with other websites, both locally and nationally.

“TV programmes like ‘Who do you think you are?’ have generated a huge interest in family history, and potentially more than 5000 families from St Helens will have grand fathers and great uncles who were in The South Lancs Regiment, and probably 1000 of them will have been in The St Helens Pals.

“The Heritage Lottery Fund Grant will help all of those people to search and find the truth, and leave a legacy for their families and the people of St Helens into the future.”

Sara Hilton, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund North West, said: "The St HelensPals were an influential battalion and it is great news that their contribution to the Great War will be recognised with investment from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

“The local community will learn more about their history and heroic achievements. Leading up to the centenary celebrations in 2014 this project will encompass great and proud memories for the community for this commemorative anniversary.”

(Peter Harvey can be contacted via St Helens CEN.)

Events & Support ServicesWesley HouseCorporation Street St.HelensMerseysideWA10 1HP

Contact: Alexandra CollinsTel: 01744 675305Fax: 01744 676361alexandracollins@sthelens.gov.ukOur ref:Your ref:

5th October 2011

Re: Remembrance Sunday 13th November and Remembrance Day 11th November 2011

Dear Group Organiser,

I am writing to invite you to join the Mayor at a Service to Commemorate Remembrance Day on Sunday 13th November 2011. A parade and Service will be held at the Cenotaph in Victoria Square commencing at 10.51am.

Please arrive at St.Helens Town Hall from 10.30am to accompany the Mayor in the Civic Procession which will leave the Town Hall at 10.50 am. There will be a two-minute silence at 11.00am, which will be followed by a religious service. Following the National Anthem wreaths will be officially laid on the Cenotaph following which the Civic Procession will return to the Town Hall for the March Past of organisations. Light Refreshments will then be available in the Town Hall.

The order of Service, Poppies and Crosses for the Garden of Remembrance will be available in the Reception area at the Town Hall on the day.

A service will also take place on Friday 11th November 2011 at 11.00am at the Cenotaph to mark the two minutes silence, to which you are invited.

I would be grateful if you could confirm your attendance to either or both services by contacting the strategic Events Team on the number above.

Yours sincerely

Lorraine SimpsonStrategic Events and Support Services Manager

Remembrance Sunday and Remembrance Day Sunday 11th and 13th November 2011

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St Helens CEN01744 759390

infocensthelens@gmail.com

http://sthelenscen.ning.com

Suite F1 Millennium Centre Corporation Street St HelensWA10 1HJ

North West Rail Improvements 'unlikely to be approved in full'

The government is unlikely to authorise the full package of plans for the Northern Hub upgrade of northern rail networks due to high costs, the transport minister has admitted.

Villiers told the Northern Rail conference last week that the Department for Transport (DfT) is looking to approve certain strands of the Northern Hub proposals, but not the programme as a whole. 

Villiers made reference to the first phase of the Northern Hub – the Ordsall Chord project to build a new railway connecting Manchester Victoria with Manchester Piccadilly station, which was given the go-ahead by chancellor George Osborne in March.

She then said: "We recognise the benefits that the remainder of the Northern Hub programme could offer. We will be looking very seriously at the whole proposal [in the coming months]. 

"There’s no doubt that the package as a whole is an expensive one. Affordability issues will need careful consideration and it will be necessary to make a judgement on the different components individually. This is unlikely to be an all or nothing decision."

A DfT spokesman said: "As the minister has already made clear, this government recognises the benefits that the Northern Hub programme could offer. This is why we have funded the first stages of the project and we are looking very seriously at the whole proposal.

"However, the affordability of the scheme will also clearly need careful consideration. It will be necessary to weigh up the different components of the hub individually. Indeed, this approach has enabled us to give the green light already for the Ordsall Chord scheme - a very important component of the Northern Hub."The estimated costs of the whole programme exceed £500 million. As well as the Ordsall Chord, there are also plans to introduce up to 700 more trains per day on northern rail networks and provide faster, more frequent services between Hull, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool.

Free Northern Conference 1st December2011 At Manchester Mechanics Institute 103

Princess St, Manchester M1 6DDCommunity North West and the Empowering

Communities Project invites community activists,local workers, community groups and small voluntary

organisations from the North to come to thisConference to plan how best to organise, campaign

and survive.

info@communitynw.org.ukTel 01282 692323