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BLACKPOOL COUNCIL
EXECUTIVE MEMBER REPORT TO THE COUNCIL
Report of the Cabinet Member for:
Culture and Leisure
at the Council meeting held on:
21st June 2006
This report provides the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on
various matters relating to the Culture and Leisure portfolio.
Heritage Strategy
The public consultation on the draft Heritage Strategy, reported to the last meeting, has now
ended. Eleven written responses and many verbal comments were received along with a
great deal of press coverage. All responses broadly welcomed the Strategy.
The Strategy was revised in the light of the comments received and considered by the
Executive at its meeting of 24th May 2006. It is also the subject of an item on this Council
agenda. If approved, it will support Blackpool’s application for World Heritage Site status
and raise its profile internationally, increasing awareness of and fostering pride in its unique
place in history
It establishes Blackpool’s first Heritage Forum, bringing together the Council and key
stakeholders to take ownership of the Strategy and its future development. The Forum is
being set up to engage more residents and a wider community in heritage matters, to coordinate programmes and plans, to maximise the benefits and to avoid duplication of effort.
Invitations to join the Forum have been sent to more than 20 organisations, and I look
forward to chairing the inaugural meeting on Friday 21st July.
This will be followed at 6.30pm by a Mayoral Reception, to which all Members of the Council
are invited, to celebrate the adoption of Blackpool’s first Heritage Strategy and the
establishment of the Heritage Forum, at the Grand Theatre.
The first showing in Blackpool of the Mitchell and Kenyon footage of Blackpool and the Fylde
Coast in the early years of the last century will then take place at 7.30pm. A total of 500
tickets for this film show have been made available to members of the public free of charge.
The Arts
The Fusion project, a partnership arts project involving Blackpool Primary Care Trust,
Bispham High School artists Dynamic New Animation and photographer Chantal Croakes,
has now been completed. Blackpool hosted the North West showcase event for this project
on 17th May for Arts Council England at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. More than 100 artists
and participants attended.
Sizzle is the Creative Industries support network for Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre, which was
established by our Arts Development team. The latest successful event was hosted by
Blackpool and the Fylde College in March when the keynote speaker Ray Hanks from the
North West Development Agency explained the support available regionally. In addition, 15
new creative businesses have been given advice and support through the Creative
Lancashire project.
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The Grundy Art Gallery has launched the Contemporary Jewellery Project with Secondary
Schools. This project was funded by the North West Museums, Libraries and Archives
Council to introduce Key Stage 4 Pupils to Art and Design through studying the gallery’s
collection, artist led practical workshops and talks with design students, graduates and
designers working in the creative industries. So far three schools have completed the
project and two have booked sessions for the Autumn.
The Young Seasiders’ Exhibition was hugely successful as usual, with 62 local Primary,
Secondary and Special Schools taking the opportunity to showcase their pupils’ work at the
Art Gallery. World Cultures Week coincided with the exhibition, so the Gallery’s Access and
Education Officer worked with Arts Development to run a series of special events exploring
World Cultures. More than 400 pupils from reception through to Year 5 were able to
experience Chinese Ribbon Dance, Chinese Paper Craft and West African Storytelling and
Drumming.
Adult and Community Learning
This service arranged a number of successful events during Adult Learners’ Week between
22nd and 26th May. The Mayor presented the prizes at a ceremony celebrating the first
ever Adult Learning Digital Photography Competition. The standard of entries was high and
learners welcomed the opportunity to display their work in the Central Library.
Certificates were also presented to a group of nine learners who successfully completed
their accreditation in their Financial Literacy training. They made very positive comments
about the impact of the training on managing their finances. One said that they now tried to
pay bills on time and another said she went shopping fortnightly in order to spend less. The
Financial Literacy course has been delivered to 66 beneficiaries in seven locations across
Blackpool.
An inspector from the Adult Learning Inspectorate met with the Head of Adult and
Community Learning and the Quality Manager and is satisfied that progress is being made
on the post-inspection plan. The Learning and Skills Council approved the Development
Plan that is linked to funding and described it as ‘good’.
A new partnership has been forged with Gingerbread (the charity supporting lone parent
families) to run a Storytelling project. Family Literacy and Numeracy courses have attracted
over 200 parents/carers and accompanying children since March. Good links have been
made with schools and libraries.
Libraries
The library service has undertaken a comprehensive review of Sunday opening at Palatine
and Central libraries. People using the libraries were asked how useful this was to them,
and whether the current opening hours were convenient. The responses were very positive
and welcomed the initiative, so the two libraries will continue to open on Sundays at their
current opening hours. Over the Sunday opening hours, Palatine Library issued more than
twice the number of items as Central over the same number of weeks - 6607 as compared
to 2742. Despite the above disparity in items being loaned on Sundays visitor figures show
that Central Library had the most visitors over the same period - 4795 as compared to 4168
at Palatine, with visits to Central Library predominantly for PC usage (1968 sessions at
Central and 933 at Palatine).
The 'First Choice' collections for adult readers who find reading difficult has been launched,
sponsored from the Ward budgets of two of the Members. Finding suitable reading material
for adults whose reading skills need developing is difficult and these collections are proving
their worth already.
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Several improvements have recently been made to the choice of stock available from the
Central library. DVDs can now be borrowed as a new collection has been established there.
Books in Large Print and Talking Books are particularly important to residents with visual
impairments, and the stock of this material has been reviewed and improved.
A review of the operation of the Schools Library Service has recently been undertaken to
gauge the level of support from the primary and special schools to which it is available at
cost. The service provides regularly exchanged loan collections to improve base school
library stocks, and a project loan service which offers a collection of books, and other
materials, in support of particular topics, selected to reflect the age range of the pupils.
Parks and Recreation
The first phase of the Heritage Lottery funded (HLF) restoration programme for Stanley Park
is progressing to completion. Final works include the renovation of the fountain, installation
of the footpath wearing course and the cleaning and repair of surrounding balustrade walling
and columns.
Preparation works for phase 2, which includes the restoration of the Rose Garden, Café
External’s, Remembrance Gardens, Tennis Pavilion and secondary park entrances is well
underway. The second phase is planned for completion by October 2006.
CCTV cameras are currently being installed at six key security hot spot’s’ locations in the
park. Works are due to be completed by the end of June 2006 and will support the Stanley
Park ‘Good User ‘ campaign, due to be launched in partnership with the police and the
Friends of Stanley Park this month. The campaign aims to encourage people to use and
enjoy the wide ranging benefits of Stanley Park, acknowledging will only do this if they feel
safe and have an enjoyable experience. A key focus during the campaign will be to educate
and encourage people to enjoy the park’s facilities and respect other peoples right to do the
same.
The Parks Events Programme was successfully launched in May 2006 as a vehicle to
encourage park usage and promote the value of parks. The programme also provides the
opportunity for Blackpool’s new Park Ranger Service to introduce itself to the public and
encourage participation in conservation projects and initiatives throughout Blackpool.
Parks have continued to fully embrace the concept of community involvement. Currently
eight parks have Friends Groups, who work in partnership with the Council in both improving
the quality and increasing usage of parks. The benefit of parks Friends Groups is becoming
increasingly evident, through the improvement of parks such as Kingscote, Watson Road,
Devonshire Road Rock Gardens and Stanley Park. In these and other parks, Friends
Groups have generated resources in the form of grant aid, external funding and volunteers,
resulting in real improvements to parks. The reintroduction of ‘site based’ gardeners at key
park sites this year, has been a ‘key driver’ in the success of parks friends groups, who on
those parks now have a daily contact within the parks service, with whom they can work and
assist in delivering better quality parks.
A number of successful volunteer based projects and events have been delivered this
month. Volunteer Day on Saturday 3rd June saw over 30 volunteers carry out
environmental improvement schemes in and around Stanley Park Woodland Garden. Paths
were improved, rubbish removed and wildlife habitat enhanced. The ‘Buddleia Island’
project in Stanley Park goes from strength to strength. This has seen volunteers from the
Langdale Centre working with Blackpool Colleges Arts Students and gardeners from the
parks service, to transform a previously underutilised area of the park into a picnic site,
which includes art sculptures on an environmental theme.
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As part of its drive to achieve ‘Green Flag’ status for its parks, the parks service has
submitted Watson Road and Louie Horrocks Park for accreditation this year. Judging will
take place at the beginning of July 2006 with the results being published in September 2006.
Sport and Leisure
Blackpool’s new Sport, Nutrition and Physical Activity Alliance (SNPAA) was successfully
launched in April 2006. The Director of Public Health is chairing Blackpool’s Sport, Nutrition
and Physical Activity Alliance.
Sport England has ring fenced revenue funding for the Borough over the next three years to
support the work of this group, subject to the production of a new strategy and action plan.
The new strategy aims to widen access and raise overall participation in Sport, Nutrition and
Physical Activity and a number of community consultation events are currently taking place
to further develop this vision for Sport, Nutrition and Physical Activity in the Borough.
In terms of the formation of the Sport, Nutrition and Physical Activity Alliance, Sport England
North West and Lancashire Sports Partnerships selected Blackpool as one of three local
Authorities within the county to act as a lead in terms of the development of such a group.
Sport, Nutrition and Physical Activity Alliance aims to achieve a shared vision and common
goals for delivering Sport and Physical Activity and is made up of the public, private and
voluntary sectors.
Palatine Leisure Centre continues to attract a significant number of visitors, during the period
June 2005 - March 2006 over 102,000 visits were recorded. The centre, which opened to
members of the public in June 2005, is now approaching its first anniversary and a
programme of activities and celebrations are being planned to mark the occasion.
Hilda Bancroft, the wife of the late George Bancroft (BEM), Deputy and Leader of Blackpool
Council, officially opened the new Central Gateway and George Bancroft Park on
Wednesday 24th May. TV celebrity, Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen and international climber
Alan Hinkes were also present to celebrate the first major park to be opened in Blackpool
since Stanley Park in 1926. A successful programme of community based leisure activities
and events also took place over the following weekend to mark the opening.
The focal point of the park are two outdoor 20m climbing towers, the park also contains an
open access floodlit Multi Use Games Area, children’s playground, bouldering wall, paths
and walkways. A number of activities are currently taking place on the park, which includes
climbing sessions for all abilities and a programme of sports coaching for children and young
people.
On Thursday 8th June the Amateur Swimming Association launched the National Get Safe 4
Summer Campaign in Blackpool. Five primary schools and Palatine Community Sports
College took part in swimming and beach activities. The Mayor of Blackpool opened the
campaign and the day was a great success with all the school children thoroughly enjoying
the day.
Together with Blackpool Sports Centre and Moor Park Pool, another two of our sports
facilities have just recently been accredited with the leisure industry quality kite mark award
Quest. Palatine Leisure Centre and St Georges Swimming Pool have recently undergone
their assessment and have met the criteria required to gain the award.
Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to invite any questions or comments from Councillors
in relation to the Culture and Leisure portfolio.