Little interest in community forum for Berwick town
PLANS for a community forum in Berwick have drawn strong criticism from the few who attended a public meeting to hear how the new local government set up will work.
Community forums are being created as a means of identifying local needs and priorities and feeding them into Northumberland County Council.
They will also provide local people with a way to voice their opinions on the services they receive from the county council and its partners.
However, the handful of people who went along to the William Elder Building on Castlegate last Wednesday voiced serious concerns about the lack of influence it will have.
John Robertson, chairman of Berwick Chamber of Trade, said: "There seem to be a lot of similarities between this and the now defunct Berwick Borough Local Strategic Partnership.
"It ended up with an enormous wish-list but unfortunately had no money to take forward local projects and, as a result, people were disappointed with it."
The council plans to set up community forums in 27 localities across the county - including one to cover both Berwick and Islandshire - with the host receiving 2823 to carry out its administration.
David Cook, former secretary of Berwick Borough Council, said: "It strikes me that the hosting allowance is incredibly stingy.
"What worries me is that the organisation this responsibility falls to is likely to be vastly under-resourced, whether that is the development trust, the town council of whoever."
He also had doubts as to whether the community forum would be able to establish any degree of independence from the county council.
"At some point the forum has to come to a council committee to get funding validated so any scope for independence is very restrictive and constrained and that is a concern to me," he said.
He also criticised those local county councillors who failed to attend the meeting - Coun Jim Smith of Berwick East and Coun Brian Douglas of Berwick North were both absent.
"It's a very poor reflection on these councillors who are supposed to represent their communities," said Mr Cook.
Ex-sheriff Philip Stanbury said he was 'bemused' by the creation of another organisation tasked with local needs when the Berwick's Future steering group had already identified important issues.
"We've had lots of studies which have produced some great ideas but they keep getting put to one side," he said.
"All we are doing is setting up another structure which will be no more than a talking shop."
But Gillian Simmons, the council's north locality officer, said: "If you want to be sure that this area has a voice to highlight the concerns here then you have to have a mechanism in place for the county council to hear them and that mechanism is the community forum."
A meeting will now be held to resolve how Berwick and Islandshire, with its distinct urban and rural identities, will work within a single community forum.
Mrs Simmons said: "The parishes around Berwick are very concerned that if there is one forum that their issues will be swept aside by the weight of issues in the town which is probably fair comment."
As a result, it is proposed that urban and rural branches of a single community forum could be created, although it would have to split the hosting allowance unless extra funding can be found.
Her efforts to find volunteers from Berwick to work towards this goal proved difficult, however, with only Russell Sandbach, chief executive of Berwick Community Development Trust putting his name forward.
Norham and Islandshire Parish Council Association will decide whether to put its name forward to be the forum's host at its next meeting on November 25.
Community forums are already up and running in Seahouses and Belford and Glendale, hosted by Seahouses Youth Project and the Glendale Gateway Trust respectively.
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Weather for Berwick-Upon-Tweed
Saturday 25 May 2013
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