We are now working in 10 Township areas across the Borough.
Each area has a partnership forum that reports to Wigan Borough Partnership.
Forums aim to:
- Promote local action – via a local plan
- Get people and agencies to work together more productively
- Provide a voice for local people and issues
Who is involved?
250 places on 10 Township Forums - including over 80 community organisations:
- Locality groups
- Young people
- Sports
- Faith
- Leisure
- Tenants and residents
- Community centres
- Women’s groups
- Health and older people
- Environment
- Cohesion and community safety
In addition to local groups,Forums include Councillors, paid officers (as advisors) and local businesses.
In a recent survey awareness of the township programme amongst the general public had risen from 16% to 40% in the year up to September 2003.
Some examples of achievements in Townships so far:
- Standish Aspull Shevington - Job club support for young people who have been unemployed since leaving school
- Ashton Bryn - Winner of Wigan Borough’s Cleaner Greener Campaign - 1st prize of £10,000 for environment improvements
- Hindley Platt Bridge Abram - Improvements in community involvement and partnership working between neighbourhoods. Community led park improvement scheme in Abram
- Orrell Billinge Winstanley - Orrell Post Village Centre Environment Improvement Scheme. Community Centre Development & Community Park at Winstanley
- Leigh - Multi purpose gazebo in Pennington Park, in association with our partners. Working with residents of Westleigh towards building a community centre
- Golborne Lowton - Work with former miners to create a memorial for miners at Golborne Pit Colliery gates. Support for development of Parkside Sports and Community Centre
- Wigan South - Worsley Mesnes has the first Time Bank initiative in the Borough
- Wigan North - Partnership with Street Scene Team to carry out environmental improvements in the Ince area
- Atherton - Improvement to Atherton Cenotaph and the local landscape
- Tyldesley - Improvements to footpaths and green spaces around Shakerley Estate through ‘Transform Your Space’ projects
Community Plan consultation
If you have read through to this point then you’ll know that this plan has emerged from a huge range of ideas and contributions. All through the process we have done our best to inform and involve people through:
- Partnership Conventions
- Leaflet campaign
- Special projects such as Local Observation
- Partnership meetings
- Community Plan distributed in public venues across the Borough.
- Community Network projects
- Publicity and information
- Local opinions and views when establishing the Township Programme
- Radio advertising
- Pilot Information video for work with young people
- Web sites
- Presentations to groups such as Rotary clubs, Chamber of Commerce, Parish Councils
- Citizen’s Panel
- Newspaper advertising
- Neighbourhood Renewal
- Freepost reply coupons
- Townships road-show campaign
- Local consultation
- Township Roadshows
- Work with elected members and local agencies
If you have any good ideas for how we might share the Community Plan more widely and get more people involved and contributing then please let us know.
