Behind-the-door-itis

Acrylic-bob · 11-12-2005, 13:57

I have just come across a report of the handouts made in the northwest by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Divided by local authorities, it makes gloomy reading. Apparently a total of £327.5 Million has been handed out in the region for arts and community projects.

Blackburn with Darwen has received £5,148,010
Blackpool has received £5,912,408
Burnley has received £3,602,365

Even the sleepy and mainly rural Ribble Valley has received £366,148

(You just know what the next sentence is going to say, don't you?)

Hyndburn Borough Council,
strapped for cash and the 51st most deprived borough in England,
has applied for and received the grand sum of
£255,500.

£245,500 of which was spent on Haworth Art Gallery in 2001. The remainder was spent producing a "plan" for Rhyddings Park, again in 2001.

In 2001 The House of Commons Library estimated that, on average, each parliamentary constituency had spent, thus far, £50 million on National Lottery tickets.

We are missing out here folks, BIG TIME! We are around six million quid behind our neighbours. No wonder the borough is in the sorry and shocking state that we complain of daily. We are afflicted with a council which has a pretty terminal case of Behind-the-door-when-it-comes-to-free-money-itis.

Our parks are falling to pieces, the Heritage Lottery Fund has the money to restore them, but HBC are too stupid and idle to ask for it.

Our Community Wardens are about to loose their jobs because HBC prefer to waste council tax on schemes the Heritage Lottery Fund could be persuaded to fork out for.

Arts and community projects in the borough are starved of cash, which any other borough seems to have no problem in securing from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

"30 years of service to the community". 30 years which have seen the borough slide ever further into debt and deprivation.

There comes a time when even the most determined soul has to admit that they are flogging a dead horse and that it is time to give up and try something new.

It strikes me, that time has come!

It is time we sacked the lot of them and threw in our lot with Blackburn.

The report is here: http://www.hlf.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1...148/HLF_NW.pdf

SPUGGIE J · 11-12-2005, 14:11

Right time to march to the town hall and blouter some sense into them. Gayle has many times pointed out what we could get wether through HBC and independently and nowt happens. Bet most of the cash was independently aquired.

Gayle · 11-12-2005, 14:39

As I've pointed out before A-B - you can't blame the lottery itself. You have to apply for grants from them in order to get the cash

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/s...hlight=lottery

So, either our Council is not applying for grants (or not encouraging local community groups to apply for grants) or the grant application forms are not up to scratch!

Acrylic-bob · 11-12-2005, 15:25

Since we suspect that the Idiot-in-Chief and his cohorts inspect this site, if only to check on what is being said about them, here is an opportunity to tell them what schemes and projects you think they should be applying for lottery funding for.

To start what I am sure will be an enormous list, I'll chuck my two-pennorth in first.

A. Purchase Cannon Street Baptist Church and Lar-de-Dars and the Berkely and then connect all the properties on that block with the library and the mechanics institute into a museum/arts/education and performance district.

B. For God's sake do something about the Church Commercial and the Hargreaves Warehouse.

C. Pay a respected Architect to redesign the Town Centre. Accrington Borough Council could do it in 1947, there is no reason that HBC cannot do it now.

and finally....Get off your fat, overpaid arses and do something!!!!!

.

.

Gayle · 11-12-2005, 15:34

Other borough councils have a funding officer or funder finder they're sometimes called. I've not actually heard of Hyndburn having one, so doubt that they do (I could be wrong so I'll need to check). If they don't then it's clearly something that they need.

The problem with the funding application forms is that they are usually very lengthy and quite complex - they also need to be written in 'application speak' to get anywhere. Quite simply they can put a lot of people off!

Also, Councils aren't usually allowed to apply for lottery funding or other streams of funding but the way to get round it is to form small groups i.e. Friends of groups, or to put certain areas of Council responsibility out to Trusts.

The thing with all these things is that you need to be really pro-active and quite visionary about it and I think that's what we're lacking around here.

Debbie J · 11-12-2005, 15:45

Milnshaw Park, Gatty Park in fact all parks in the borough could do with a face lift & things for the kids to play on. With wardens to make sure the idiot minority dont wreck em

geoff70 · 11-12-2005, 15:46

well it seem's you people no what has to be done ,anyway who are these councilors who elects them why are'nt they working for the people ???does the community not have a say in the way funds are to be spent ...or do these so called councilors have so much contempt for you they dont even consult the community...i would chose to build play parks for kids over an art gallery anyday !!!

garinda · 11-12-2005, 17:28

The daft thing is the poorer the area the more people spend on lottery tickets.

It's socialism for the new millenium, the redisribution of wealth, except it's going from the rich to the poor.

Acrylic-bob · 11-12-2005, 18:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by garinda

It's socialism for the new millenium, the redisribution of wealth, except it's going from the rich to the poor.

Errrm, forgive the observation, but shouldn't that be the other way round?

garinda · 11-12-2005, 19:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob

Errrm, forgive the observation, but shouldn't that be the other way round?

You're quite right.

As you know I never make mistakes.

I must have mean't morally rich and poor.

Acrylic-bob · 11-12-2005, 19:16

I'm sure that must have been it dear.

Anyway, this is about a list of projects which members think need funding not about one of G's blonde moments.

So lets have some ideas please!

Gayle · 11-12-2005, 19:18

The other way to go about it is to look at the lottery website and see what the funding programmes are offering at the moment.

http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/programmes/

That way you can see if any of your ideas fit in with what's on offer. For instance the play ground thing.

SPUGGIE J · 11-12-2005, 19:21

Gayle going to have a nosey just to see if HBC need a boot were it hurts for being well to be blunt "a lazy bunch of so and so's."

garinda · 11-12-2005, 19:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob

I'm sure that must have been it dear.

Anyway, this is about a list of projects which members think need funding not about one of G's blonde moments.

So lets have some ideas please!

A big public work of art in a prominent position in the Borough to bring in tourists, and put us on the map.

What?

We've already rejected that one?

SPUGGIE J · 11-12-2005, 19:27

Ok had a quick nosey and was shocked at the amount of money that is available for all kinds of projects. All need to get together and push for as much as they can.