Agbrigg & Belle Vue Community Association

by Sam Liddicott

The Campaign to save the Agbrigg & Belle Vue Neighbourhood Management Team has been hard work for many people involved.

The reason why - Believing there to be strong community support for the continuation of Neighbourhood Management Team, and there being no interest in continuing the team from those who have administered the pilot scheme, the first aim was to discover the strength of community support and to see whether it was as strong as was believed – and if so to, then present the case to anyone in authority who would listen.

The beginning - To this end, three residents, Najeeda Asghar, Angie Tate and Sam Liddicott met last week to produce a Campaign that would help residents express their feelings in supporting continuation of the Neighbourhood Management Team. They selected an objective that was simple to understand and that could be supported by most residents:

Campaign Wording

The Neighbourhood Management Team has worked very well for the whole community and is now the desired means of interaction with service providers and WMDC.

We, the residents of Agbrigg and Belle Vue instruct WMDC to arrange for our Neighbourhood Management Team to continue as it is now in it's current form, with all the support it currently has from WMDC, and to confirm this arrangement before the end of December 2009.

This is our will, and we each speak it by the voice of our empowerment.

Seven residents then gave names in support as campaign founders, and are listed in the campaign information sheet and also on the campaign website: www.abv.org.uk/save

These are Najeeda Asghar, Angela Tate, Sam Liddicott, Naseem Ahmed, Ruth Barnett, Javed Iqbal and Eileen Worton.

Two Campaign organisers met with a local councillor and failed to get support “in the event that funding is not a problem” – but this was no great setback, for it is important to note that this is a residents campaign. Even the Neighbourhood Management Team are not involved. (They did know something was afoot, and tried to offer some advice, but the organizers wanted a campaign that they could believe in, and so the advice was ignored!)

The Campaign Starts - Over the weekend at the end of November, the campaign documents were produced, supported by the ABV Community News which was re-written to explain the Campaign.

On Monday, residents started signing the Campaign and helping others also register support. Most of this work is not done by the Campaign Organisers but other residents.

The first set-back - 24 hours after the Campaign launch we were told (third-hand, a message passed via the Neighbourhood Management Team – who really have nothing to do with this) that “petitions” could not be kept in the community centre – surely some mistake? Surely community members could come in to the community centre and sign their support for a community service provided to the community from the community centre?

But we are reminded that it is a council building, run by council officers who cannot be seen to be acting against council policy. We point out that we are not opposing council policy but merely trying to affect council policy. After a pleasant discussion we are permitted to keep the “petition”, but were informed that the council employed reception staff cannot help residents who come in to sign the Campaign – perhaps not quite the same behaviour as was observed with the Neighbourhood Nursery petition, but then perhaps that was in support of council policy? A firm reminder that it is a council building first and a community centre second.

Of course we really should have checked with the centre manager that it was OK to post our campaign documents there, but the campaign was organized in a hurry, and we did have rather idealistic notions about what a community centre was for.

Presenting the names - Evidence of strong support began to arrive quite quickly, and on 1st December Najeeda Asghar (having previously spoken to Mary Creagh MP) contacted the Council Chief Executive, Ms Roney to discuss the future of Neighbourhood Management and the Community Centre.

This would be the point at which the Council would be formally notified of the Campaign – the point at which we knew residents truly supported it, and we knew that there was something to discuss.

The second setback - We learn today (4th December), alas, that Ms Roney is really too busy to meet this year – and she probably is – but if we can't meet her, we're not sure how to tell her that over 700 residents (and counting) have something they want her to hear.

Of course we know that Council officers do know about the Campaign because they keep calling the Neighbourhood Management Team (who really really have nothing to do with the Campaign) to find out what is going on. If residents are now so empowered that they don't need the Neighbourhood Management Team, I wonder that they don't call the residents to find out.

This week I spoke with two local councillors at length and totally failed to get support – even in the event that “money is not an obstacle”. Having heard from 3 councillors on the subject, it seems residents should be grateful for what we've had (we are, we truly are – can't you see how much we appreciate it?) and stop asking for more.

The difficulty is, of course, that now we are too empowered and we won't go away. We really believe that what we do will make a difference. It really will. When a community acts unitedly it is the ultimate authority – (for good or bad).

External support – We have good support from residents and across service providers, but up till now, the only positive response we have had from anyone in authority is from John Trickett MP who doesn't seem put out that residents are asking for something that he wasn't already planning to give them.

Thanks - I want to make clear that we very much appreciate Council officers, and Councillors, in all the great work they have done, and particularly for their support of the Neighbourhood Management Pilot. We also know of and appreciate those Council officers who recognize the value in supporting the scheme but are required to follow current council policy.

The future - I believe that the pilot as supported by our Neighbourhood Management Team has truly put residents in control of their own community. And I think that's why residents won't let go, ever. The whole country needs an NMT like ours.