The county council has approved two pilot projects in Brampton and Longtown to look into the best way for the county council and Carlisle City Council to co-ordinate the use and future development of their property assets and deliver the best services for local people. The approach was included in a joint report by the County Council and Carlisle City Council and will be considered by the City Council's Executive later this month.
The new partnership approach is linked to recent joint work carried out by the county council and Cumbria Primary Care Trust which combines the PCT's Closer to Home consultation with the modernisation of Cumbria Care. This joint proposal will see a multi-million pound investment in six new, state-of-the-art residential homes on the sites of both new and existing community hospitals.
The two pilot projects in Brampton and Longtown will look at what services are being delivered by the two councils and whether there are any benefits associated with offering a single point of contact for council and other public sector services and in working together in the development of other property related initiatives. Both councils will engage with key stakeholders, including the voluntary sector and the local community, to identify how services should be delivered in the future.
The Brampton pilot will involve looking at a new Customer Access Centre which will improve the face-to-face contact with council customers and explore how other public sector organisations can also provide their services via a single access point.
In Longtown the secondary school, Lochinvar, will close next year. The pilot project will consider the drive for a more focused hub for public services and sustainable community facilities and how the surplus school site could contribute to achieving this.
Cumbria County Council is looking to work alongside other organisations in the county with a view to providing similar Customer Access Centres in each of the main service centres of Cumbria. These will act as 'hubs' to be linked to specific 'spokes' in smaller communities.
Councillor Gary Strong, Cabinet Member for Community Development and Safety, said:
"It's early days, but this agreement lays out what we're trying to achieve: joined-up thinking and joined-up delivery of services in fit-for-purpose buildings. The public shouldn't have to navigate a maze of separate public service buildings and reception areas in the same town or village. There should be a single point of contact - be it a school, library, fire station, office or other public sector facility - where the public can go for a range of needs.
"Property is our second most valuable and costly resource. Cumbria is made up of a hotchpotch of publicly-owned buildings each doing their own thing and each costing the taxpayer money in maintenance and running costs. Many of these buildings are economically obsolete, not fit for purpose and our staff and our customers have been making do with substandard accommodation.
Our aim is to develop a plan for the delivery of modern facilities that are in the right location, sustainable, suitable, sufficient, cheaper to run and more customer-focused and this will help reduce the number of unsuitable council-owned buildings by around 25% in the next 5 years .
"The scale of the project cannot be underestimated and no single organisation in Cumbria will be able to deliver the necessary change on its own. We will be looking to engage with other public sector organisations, the voluntary and private sector and the communities, in order to develop short, medium and longer term strategies for the development of new and improved public sector facilities."
ENDS
Media enquiries to Gareth Cosslett, News Manager on 01228 606332
Notes
Work is already underway on the co-ordination of plans for public sector property throughout Cumbria. The image shows attendees of a recent workshop held at Cumbria County Council for Heads of Property and Asset Management in Cumbria. Organisations attending included Allerdale Borough Council, Capita, Carlisle City Council, Carlisle CVS, Cumbria Association of Local Councils, Cumbria County Council, Cumbria Primary Care Trust, Lake District National Park Authority, South Lakeland District Council and the Development Trusts Association.