Agenda item

            The Director submitted for the Committee’s consideration the undernoted report:

1          Relevant Background Information

1.1      Members will be aware that, there are 12 Neighbourhood Renewal Partnerships within the BCC area.  Each Partnership was tasked with producing a Vision Framework (7-10 years) and Action Plan (3 years) for the Neighbourhood Renewal area. The 12 Partnerships are:

       - Inner East  Belfast           - Inner South Belfast

       - South West Belfast          - Greater Shankill

       - Greater Falls                    - Lenadoon

       - Upper Springfield            - Crumlin/Ardoyne

       - Inner North Belfast          - Andersonstown

       - Ligoniel                             - Upper Ardoyne/Ballysillan

            The actions plans were completed for each area and submitted to DSD for consideration and funding support.  These Plans proposed thousands of actions that would need to be delivered by a range of organisations in key areas such as housing, health, education, community safety, good relations, employability, community development, culture, tourism, leisure, children and young people, older people and environmental and physical improvement.

2          Key Issues

2.1      The Council has become a key participant in the neighbourhood renewal process and to date a wide range of support has been provided including:-

-     Overall coordination of council’s response to neighbourhood renewal facilitated through SNAP.

-     Officer participation and representation provided on all 12 Neighbourhood Renewal Partnerships through Community Services.

-     Action Plan responses prepared for each of the 12 Neighbourhood Renewal Partnerships Action Plans.

-     Implementation of a number of key actions pertaining to the Neighbourhood Renewal Plans.

-     Provision of area-based intelligence to support the neighbourhood renewal process.

-     Neighbourhood renewal resource directories prepared for the Partnerships detailing Council services and key staff working in the local area.

-     Implementation of the Lenadoon Neighbourhood Renewal Pilot in partnership with BRO. See below for further details.

-     On-going work with BRO regarding the development of partnership approaches to the implementation of the Neighbourhood Renewal Action Plans including the Service Delivery Model.

2.2      Lenadoon Neighbourhood Renewal Pilot

            At the Development Committee meeting of 10th December 2008, council agreed to work with BRO in an exploratory neighbourhood renewal partnership project. Piloted in the Lenadoon Neighbourhood Renewal area, the project would enable both organisations to deliver on their commitment to the NR action plan in a more integrated manner and then apply any lessons learned to other neighbourhood action plans.

            A two phase pilot programme has been designed for the Lenadoon area. Phase 1 was completed between January and March 2010. Phase 2 projects have been developed and an application for funding to implement these projects has been submitted to BRO.

            An overview of the Lenadoon pilot and its associated projects and activities has been circulated. Given the success of this partnership approach to delivery, it is recommend that further discussions should now take place with BRO regarding the potential to develop additional projects and activities in other Neighbourhood Renewal areas. Updates on such discussions or proposals will be brought to Committee in due course.

2.3      Next steps

            Whilst work is on-going with regard to the implementation of the Council's response to the Neighbourhood Renewal Action plans there are a number of pieces of work that are on-going that may have implications for future service delivery.

            These include the following:-

-     BRO is in the process of completing an implementation review of the Belfast Neighbourhood Renewal Action Plans. This review has considered each priority within the plans and measured and identified if they have been either fully, partially or not met at all. The review has also identified future priorities for each Partnership. This review can be made available in due course.

-     BRO is in the process of developing its Service Delivery Model, a process which focuses on rationalizing services funded through the NR fund.  This again will have an impact on organisations which are focused on delivering services relating to; Community Development, Training and Community Education and Drugs/Alcohol.

-     DSD is also in the process of developing a policy framework on Urban Regeneration and Community Development. The role of Neighbourhood Renewal will be considered within this.

-     Following the development of the Lenadoon Pilot it is recommended that engagement with BRO takes place regarding the future roll out of addition pilots across the city.

3          Resource Implications

3.1      Co-ordinated by the SNAP Unit

4          Equality and Good Relations Considerations

4.1      There are no adverse implications in terms of equality of opportunity and good relations

5          Recommendations

5.1      It is recommended that the Committee:-

-     Notes the contents of the report.

-     Agrees that discussions should be held with BRO regarding pilot approaches in other Neighbourhood Renewal areas with updates brought back to Committee in due course.

6          Decision Tracking

            Time Line:  March 2011

Reporting Officer:  Siobhan Watson, SNAP Manager

7          Key to Abbreviations

            NR – Neighbourhood Renewal

            NRA – Neighbourhood Renewal Area

            NRAP- Neighbourhood Renewal Action Plan

            BRO – Belfast Regeneration Office

            DSD – Department for Social Development

            SNAP – Strategic Neighbourhood Action Programme”

The Committee adopted the recommendations.