Councillor Graham Stokes Cabinet Member for Corporate Services

JANUARY 2004

Welcome to the New Year, I hope it will be a good one for you, and that you will not break your New Year resolutions too soon.

BOXING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Knottingley Sports Centre hosted the National Boxing Novice Senior Championship Finals on December 20th, people and boxers from all over the country came to spectate and compete, this was a prestigious event for Knottingley, and was well attended. The 3 Knottingley Councillors sponsored three of the bouts and presented certificates to the finalists and runners up.

KITCHEN ALTERATIONS – VALE CRESCENT, VALE AVENUE, KNOTTINGLEY
A scheme for some of the properties in Vale Crescent and Vale Avenue will start on site 12 January 2004. Work includes

• Replacement PVCu windows
• Solid Hardwood Doors in a PVCu frame
• Remodelling of the kitchen layout including new units and worktops
• Kitchen walls and ceilings decorated
• New vinyl floor finish
• New roof to kitchen

ADULT EDUCATION
A new Adult Education Centre is to open in the shop previously occupied by Ferrybridge Rent Office, Ferrybridge Square.  This will be managed by Castleford Women’s centre.

FERRYBRIDGE COMMUNITY CENTRE
I am pleased to see that Ferrybridge Community Centre Management Committee have received an offer of grant totalling £230,000 from the Coalfields Regeneration Trust.  This is part funding of the project which totals just over £0.5m for a new Community Centre to replace the existing building in Ferrybridge. An application has been made to the Community Fund for £299,733 and a decision on that will be received sometime in January.  The offer from the Coalfields Regeneration Trust is subject to contractors being on site in February 2004. Mrs Mary Higgins, the Treasurer of Ferrybridge Community Centre has placed on record her thanks for the help and support she has received from the local authority officers that have worked on the project.

SINGLE REGENERATION BOARD
I recently attended a meeting in my capacity as the Chairperson of the Freshaire, Single Regeneration Board (SRB) of representatives of local voluntary organisations and agencies that provide assistance to local communities, across the SRB 6 Areas, which includes Ferrybridge. I would like every organisation within Knottingley and Ferrybridge to be successful and to gain any resources they can to improve our area, these are the organisations that can enable us to achieve our aims.

I was very impressed by the amount and scale of work being carried out, and I feel organisations such as these, need to be applauded and supported, and the work they do should be made more widely known. Amongst those present were:

LIFELONG LEARNING
This is a £13m project of development across the district, of which SRB plays a small part.  The project was responsible for developing a new centre at Glasshoughton and improving the CISWO Centre at Pontefract. Further work is to be undertaken developing and implementing a programme of family learning across the SRB 6 area. Contact Mary Roche 01924 303301

RAISING ACIEVEMENT
This project commenced in November 2002, developing a programme of study support and accelerated learning, in conjunction with local schools. Contact Linda Dye 01226 392411

PATHWAYS TO WORK
Business Support for New Business Start Ups / Infancy Enterprises. Support includes business advice, and a start up grant up to £2,000 for new businesses within the SRB 6 areas. Project Officer Helen Rowland 01924 299299

JOBNET ILM
Provides long-term unemployed with an opportunity to gain employment and develop their skills and education. Work Placements are provided on a waged basis. Examples of work done include luncheon clubs, gardening scheme, hospital discharge scheme offering help to ex-patients.  The project will continue to provide 36 work placements. Project Officer Linda Harrison 01977 723940

COMMUNITY FOCUS ILM
Provides 10 waged work placements for environmental improvement schemes identified by the local community, 14 sites have been covered, which are sites that would not normally get funding for improvement. Project Officer Darren Holmes 01924 306111

SKILL-ED
The purpose of this project is to up-skill and develop employees of small to medium sized businesses, this is achieved through grant assistance towards the cost of relevant training identified. Project officer Louise Thompson 01484 438800

MENCAP PATHWAY
The aim of the project is to work alongside people with learning disabilities that need support to make the transition into the world of work. Project Officer Mary Threadgould 01924 239955

ACCORD
Tackles substance misuse and drug prevention work. Project Officer Keith Challen 01977 665717

HOMESTART CASTLEFORD
Volunteers should have parenting experience and be a role model, along with an understanding of what parenting involves. There is a waiting list of families awaiting volunteers. Contact Jenny Brown 01977 603860

COMMUNITY SAFETY INITIATIVE
The project provides grants to fund community based safety schemes, to support measures which directly prevent crime or reduce the fear of crime. Project Officer James Stephenson 01924 373455

SMALL BUSINESS SECURITY
Aims to improve the security of commercial and industrial premises.  The project offers grants up to 50% (up to a maximum of £2,000 SRB), to assist in installing security measures. Project Officer Graham Wingfield 01924 898011

COMMUNITY CHEST
Provides small establishment and development grants to local groups. Project Officer Graham Wingfield 01924 898011

WAKEFIELD FORUM FOR THE VOLUNTARY AND COMMUNITY SECTORS (VOX)
Represents 140 local groups, can assist in developing websites for voluntary organisations, also operates a community chest which by 2006 will move to a single pot to support community engagement networks. Contact Tony Dean 01924 787384

NEIGHBOURHOOD ACTION
We have experienced some Anti Social behaviour in different parts of the district in recent times from a very small minority within the community, I would like the perpetrators to understand that it is their own environment that they are damaging by their actions, and we will not tolerate it as we have to protect the wellbeing of all the community. We are dealing with these issues in partnership with the police, probation and the council, we have found the use of Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs) to be effective, avoiding the need to go for Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOS), we have served 42 of these to date, but if necessary we will apply to court for ASBOs, 14 ASBOs are currently pending court, 8 of these are on Warwick Estate.

A breach of an ASBO is an arrestable offence, the penalty for breach is a maximum of 5 years imprisonment and/or a fine, juveniles in breach would receive a maximum 2 years detention and training order.

In addition Wakefield Council have also recruited 20 Neighbourhood Patrollers to provide a high visibility, uniformed warden presence across the district, they will be patrolling residential areas and reporting crime such as fly-tipping, vandal damage, littering, abandoned vehicles, graffiti, they will also be serving fixed penalty orders on those responsible for littering and allowing their dogs to foul public areas.

NEIGHBOURHOOD ACTION TEAM
The Neighbourhood Action Team was in Knottingley and Ferrybridge during November / December, work completed and cleaned up includes areas around:

Station Road, Ferrybridge workspace, Spawd Bone Lane, Top of England Lane, Crewe Avenue, footpath from Doncaster Rd to Sowgate Lane, Kirkhaw Lane, Stranglands Lane, Ferrybridge Park, Redmayne Avenue, rear of NAADS Club, footpath between Springfields and Broomhill, Broomhill Crescent, SYD Club site, Hazel Rd Skate Park, Hazel Rd basketball pitch, Pottery Lane, Shelley drive, Marine Villa Rd, A645 between bungalow and house 11 and 13 Pontefract Rd.

Work will continue, if you have any areas you feel need tidying up please let your local councillors know, we will include them in the programme for future work.

FERRYBRIDGE HERITAGE GROUP
At a recent meeting of Ferrybridge Heritage Group, Dave Wheldrake attended as a speaker from the Archaeology service, Dave gave us a detailed potted history of Ferrybridge, he told those present that the Archaeology Service holds a massive amount of information, they work with schools and put information on the internet.

The history that is known about Ferrybridge and its inhabitants goes back 10,000 years; the Henge at Ferrybridge was picked up by aerial photography and is Stone Age to early Bronze Age, dated approximately 2,500 years BC.

The purpose of the wooden Henge is not known, although it was a feature of the landscape for over 2,000 years, being 100 metres across, it was not filled in until the early roman period. It is not known, who dug it, why they built it, or where the people that built it were living.

The first historical reference to Ferry is in the Domesday Book, in 1086 there was a settlement between Wheldale and Knottingley called Ferry, this was thought to be Ferry Fryston, but one school of thought is that it refers to Ferrybridge. The first recorded name of Ferrybridge was in the 12th century, which leads to the belief that there must have been a bridge sometime in the late 12th century; at that time pastures at Brotherton were used to feed cattle on common land.

As well as the roman fort at Castleford, there was a lesser-known roman fort outside the Knottingley boundary at Kellington; there was also a roman villa near Wetherby. The roman’s do not appear to have made any pottery within our area, all roman pottery identified so far comes from near Doncaster.

HOUSING BENEFIT SERVICE
Anyone who has had problems with housing benefit delays this year will be pleased to hear that staff have been working very hard to clear the backlog of applications and the service is now on an even keel. Staff in housing benefits deal with 3,000 applications per week, they have now caught up with most of the delayed applications and now have the lowest amount of work outstanding than at any other time since 1998. The Audit Commission has recently inspected the service, and they have increased the score they gave the service last year. My congratulations to the staff, results like this do not just happen, it is as a result of hard work and commitment to see the service improve on their part.

We are in the process of implementing a new I.T system that should be up and running by September, which will see further improvements to the service we can give applicants at that time.

Graham Stokes
Cabinet Member for Corporate Services

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