New Plan for New Deal

by Mark Lankshear

As Year Three of New Deal comes to an end, this is the first year they have achieved spending targets. But people still complain to the Messenger they don't know what's going on or how the money’s being spent.

The New Deal is a ten year funding programme aiming to regenerate Burngreave. It has £52 million pounds to spend and each year the New Deal has to produce a plan for how it will spend the money. In the first year (2001-2) they only spent about 8% of what they'd planned (Issue 24, August 2003: Time to start performing) but this year spend is up to 80%.

John Clark, New Deal Chief Exec, told the Messenger that with nearly 70 community projects with funding in place for the next 3-5 years, a ground breaking new agreement with the Council and the purchase of properties like Sorby House, this is a great baseline to build on.

Although not all the planned projects happened last year, unspent money has been used for new initiatives like the purchase of Sorby House and the accelerated demolition of Woodside. This means that the money won't be lost and the New Deal have started to build up capital assets for the future.

Here the Messenger brings you a summary of spending over the last year and the Year Four plan. The full plan is out for comment now and can be downloaded from the New Deal pages. Overviews of the New Deal spending and future plans our outlined in the following pages.

Now is the time to make your views known before the plan is sent off to Government for approval, so why not visit our bulletin board and leave your thoughts on how New Deal is doing. Burngreave New Deal staff will check the bulletin board on a regular basis and address concerns where possible.

'Ready to move to the next level'

John praised the hard work of community organisations who have got through the frustrating process of getting projects set up, "It's more difficult to recruit people and get a project up and running than people realise. It's been a really sharp learning experience and a slow start, but Burngreave has been starved of funding for years. Now projects are starting to get established and we're ready to move to a new level."

Have your say

The Partnership Board, made up of 10 elected Community Reps and 9 high level managers from the council and other services and voluntary sector organisations make the final decisions about funding, but the Theme Groups have helped develop the projects and identify future priorities.

This system will be changing, with the start of new 'theme forums' for residents to discuss plans, and smaller elected 'strategy groups' to check projects really have an impact.

The Year 4 Plan is out for consultation, so if you'd like to comment you can either visit our bulletin boards or contact the Theme managers.

Next: So where's the money going...?
The Messenger shows who's actually recieving the money to do the many things residents have called for...