On Thursday 1 April Coventry City Council will sign an agreement worth
£447,000 with W.A.T.C.H – a limited company run by local residents, community groups
and traders in Hillfields that will give local people real control over how and where
money is spent in their area.
The grant aid agreement is the first of its kind in Coventry. And W.A.T.C.H –
Working Actively To Change Hillfields – set up in April last year and managed and run
by local people, will steer all of the work and be responsible for keeping accounts,
generating additional money and meeting a series of objectives.
The money, won by the Hillfields partnership from the Single Regeneration Budget, will
be handed over on a year by year basis over the next three years, starting with more than
£200,000 on Thursday. it will be accompanied by a tough set of targets on job creation,
training, environmental improvements and measurable out puts that will change Hillfields
for the better.
Councillor Nick Nolan, Chair of the Economic Regeneration Policy Team said,
"By signing this grant aid agreement we are confirming what we have been saying
for a long time now – local people can and should lead change in their own community.
After all it’s local people who know what needs to be done in their area, what’s
a priority and what’s not. Now people living and working in Hillfields can work to
improve their area with the back up of real money to enable them to make a real
difference."
W.A.T.C.H brings together, for the first time, the 60 plus voluntary and residents
organisations that operate in Hillfields. It will have seven full time workers leading
three major projects to create jobs and meet training needs to ensure that local people
have the best possible chance of getting back into work.
W.A.T.C.H is based in the EACH building, 12 Victoria Street and is run by an organising
committee made up of 21 people including Chair Farid Noor who is also Chair of King Edward
St Residents Assoc., Sheila Thorpe of the Hillfields Early Years Centre and Dorothy Senior
of Hillfields 12.
Mike Parker, Press Officer for W.A.T.C.H. said,
"This is a great opportunity for everyone living in Hillfields. A chance for
ordinary people to take control as we move into the next century. The signing of the grant
aid agreement is the culmination of over five years of very hard work by the local
community and the City Council. The Hilfields community can feel very proud of the growing
partnership between the City Council and W.A.T.C.H."
