A new way of involving communities around North Allerdale in local government decision-making begins on Wednesday, 13 June with the first ever North Allerdale Community Board meeting.
One of the first items of business for the new community board will be to consider using North Allerdale as a trial area for a new Community Steward scheme. Under the scheme, a Community Steward would be appointed and given responsibility for a variety of different tasks including highway and rights of way safety inspections, arranging cutting back overgrown hedges with landowners, minor highway repairs and engaging the local community in litter collection initiatives.
North Allerdale is one of five areas in Cumbria piloting the idea of community boards which are designed to improve on existing local government and other public services such as police and health by devolving decision-making, influence and resources to a truly local level.
The very first meeting of the North Allerdale pilot community board will be held at the Wigton Bowling Club on 13 June at 1:30pm. The meeting is open to everyone. The community board will be led by the county councillor for Aspatria Wharrels, Jim Buchanan.
District councillors from the area have been invited to the inaugural meeting along with parish and town councillors from the parishes included in the community board area: Aspatria, Allhallows, Bewaldeth and Snittlegarth, Boltons, Gilcrux, Plumbland, Westnewton, Bothel &Threapland, Silloth, Allonby, Bromfield, Holme Abbey, Holme Low, Holme St Cuthbert, Hayton & Mealo, Oughterside & Allerby, Aikton, Blennerhasset & Torpenhow, Bowness, Caldbeck, Dundraw, Holme East Waver, Ireby & Uldale, Kirkbampton, Kirkbride, Sebergham, Thursby, Westward, Port Carlisle, Wigton, Waverton, and Woodside.
Several local community representatives, nominated to join the new community board at Neighbourhood Forum meetings in North Allerdale, will also be participating.
As welll as the new Community Steward scheme, the first meeting will also include agenda items on access to public transport, local regeneration and getting communities, and young people in particular, involved in new board.
Councillor Buchanan said: "This is a ground-breaking opportunity for local people to get directly involved in the decisions that affect them and their communities.
"By getting as many people as possible involved in the North Allerdale Community Board, we hope to be able to utilise the unparalleled wealth of local expertise and knowledge that is out there for the benefit of the whole community.
"We will be using these initial meetings to find out what people want from their community board and how we can best make it work in the interests of everyone in North Allerdale.
"These boards mark a major change in the way people deal with local councils which can often seem remote and out of touch with the communities they serve.
"We have a chance to turn that round with community boards by putting more power in the hands of local people."
Community boards are also being piloted in Grange and Cartmel, Barrow, North East Copeland and Keswick.
These first experimental boards will help decide exactly how the system will function across the county if it is introduced as part of the switch to single unitary local government for Cumbria.
Cumbria County Council proposed a unitary council for the whole of Cumbria in response to a Government invitation to come up with ways of creating a more efficient system of local government which would make better use of public money.
The county council proposed a system which would see Cumbria County Council and the county's six district councils replaced by a single tier of local government delivering all services from highways to housing and education to leisure. The Government's Department of Communities and Local Government rated Cumbria's bid highly in its initial assessment and in July ministers are expected to make a final decision on whether Cumbria can proceed towards fully-fledged unitary status in summer 2009.
Running the pilot schemes will provide vital information on areas such as: size and resources; the work of councillors; how to engage marginalised and hard-to-reach groups; the relationship between community boards, Neighbourhood Forums and Local Committees; how to respond better to community action plans; and partnership working with businesses, voluntary organisations and town and parish councils.
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