NWEL Bulletin # 4: 20 September 2010
The aim of this bulletin is to keep NWEL members and wider networks up to date on important
events and issues that will be of interest to or have an impact on environmental voluntary sector
organisations in the North West.
Members should send any items for inclusion in the next bulletin to me at
pwilson@lancswt.org.uk and should forward these bulletins throughout their own networks to
ensure maximum coverage.
CONTENTS
Included in this NWEL Bulletin:
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Item 1
Item 2
Item 3
Item 4
Item 5
Item 6
Item 7
Item 8
Item 9
4NW Leaders Board
Local Enterprise Partnerships
Transition Groups
Government Office North West
Regional Development Agency
Green Infrastructure and Climate Change
NW Green Infrastructure Forum
Future Water Policy
Deposit Refund Scheme
4NW – The Leaders’ Board
The situation regarding 4NW has changed significantly. Following their previous commitment to
retaining a scaled-down organisation into the future, including publication of a business plan
agreed by the full Board, the intention is now that 4NW will cease to operate from the end of
September 2010.
The Leaders’ Board (ie the 23-strong board made up of local authority leaders and
stakeholders) will however continue to exist, at least for a while. Two members of staff from
4NW will be retained and transferred to St Helens council, where they will continue to work as
part of the team facilitating the transition to the new arrangements.
Local Enterprise Partnerships
LEPs are intended to be partnerships between local authorities and business that will replace
some of the functions of RDAs, while others will return to Whitehall. Bids to form LEPS were
submitted on 6th September. Most LEPs in the North West emerged relatively smoothly, with the
exception of Lancashire, where the county council is pushing ahead with a bid covering its
county area, despite opposition from its unitaries & their partners (see below). There is also a
commitment from NW council leaders to “some form” of residual regional body to champion the
region in Whitehall and to lead on high-level strategic functions and ‘generally co-ordinate the
work of the LEPs’, but this will be created by the LEPs, not as an LEP.
North West LEP bids:
Cumbria: Cumbria CC & its six districts
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Blackpool & Fylde Coast: Blackpool BC , Fylde BC and Wyre BC
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Pennine Lancashire: Blackburn with Darwen BC , Pendle BC, Ribble Valley BC, Burnley
BC, Hyndburn BC, Rossendale BC
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Central Lancs: Lancashire CC, Preston City Council, Lancaster City Council, South
Ribble BC, Chorley BC, West Lancashire DC (The county has said the bid will cover the
whole county area in opposition to Blackpool and Blackburn proposals)
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Merseyside: Liverpool City Council, Sefton MBC, Knowsley MBC, St Helens MBC,
Halton BC, Wirral MBC
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Greater Manchester
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Warrington BC, Cheshire West & Chester Council, and Cheshire East Council
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An outlier bid was also submitted by Peel Holdings, covering the area of the Atlantic
Gateway. But as the bid had no council support it was withdrawn and Peel will now
attempt to develop a special purpose vehicle for the development area that would be
accountable to the Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire-Warrington LEPs.
LEPs are very heavily focussed on promoting economic growth and being business-led.
Environmental considerations and voluntary sector / wider stakeholder engagement will be
treated differently by different LEPs, leaving us with patchy opportunities for influence and in
some cases no formal channels through which to engage. In all cases though this is a change
for the worse for NWEL members, as these are the bodies that Government expects to deal
with strategic planning issues, and environmental issues and the input of organisations such as
NWEL have both been significantly downgraded, in some cases with an attempt to ignore them
completely. Tackling LEPs will be a major challenge for NWEL members and the network itself.
“Transition Group”
This group consists of high-level (CEO / director) representatives from each of the sub-regions,
4NW, NWDA, HCA and the private sector. It is tasked with managing the transition from existing
NW-level arrangements to the new landscape of LEPs. It has identified the following key areas
of work to be tackled by project boards, each led by a sub-regional CEO:
Management of RDA assets and liabilities
Business Support
Civil Contingencies
ERDF and ESF plus RDPE
Planning
Research and Intelligence & Sectoral Development
Inward Investment
Staffing
Tourism
Government Office North West
GONW is still operating but the expectation is that its abolition will be announced following the
Spending Review to be published on 20th October, and which will set out plans for spending
(and cuts!) to 2015. Given this situation they are being more reactive than proactive on the
whole, and so there may be an opportunity to make use of their time, expertise and resources
as the operation winds down.
Regional Development Agency
NWDA will wind up by March 2012. Its budgets have been severely pruned in-year (by £52m)
and will be even more so next year. Voluntary redundancies are being encouraged, and
spending on marketing, recruitment, IT, and consultancy have been suspended.
All un-committed projects & programmes (ie contracts not yet signed) will not receive NWDA
funding in 2010/11, and they will not be making any new financial commitments in 2011/12.
Operational & capacity funding for many partner organisations will end next year, and they are
negotiating additional project funding reductions with partners.
A Regional Growth Fund has been announced by Government, which will be available from
April 2011 onwards to replace some RDA-withdrawn funding, but NWDA won’t be coordinating
bids or bidding itself.
NWDA is now focusing on delivering committed programmes & projects and enabling an
“orderly transition” into the new world of LEPs and localism, and, they hope, leaving productive
legacy, eg consulting on the final version of “Future North West”
Green Infrastructure and climate change – consultation
The ‘Green Infrastructure to Combat Climate Change: Action Plan for Cheshire, Cumbria,
Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside’ is now open for consultation. The Plan sets
out a number of green infrastructure actions that can be delivered by stakeholders within
Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Merseyside in order to help combat
climate change. It has been produced as part of the European “Green and Blue Space
Adaptation for Urban Areas and Ecotowns” (GRaBS) project.
Consultation will close on Friday 29th October 2010. Please send any comments you have to
susannah.gill@merseyforest.org.uk, and indicate in your response whether your comments
apply to Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, or Merseyside; or whether they
apply to all. As part of the consultation process they are holding a series of workshops. If you
are interested in attending one of these workshops please email Susannah.
North West Green Infrastructure Forum
The North West Green Infrastructure Forum meets on 30 th September at the Gujarat Hindu
Centre, South Meadow Lane, Preston, PR1 8JN. The Forum will include workshops on the GI &
climate change consultation above and a Green Infrastructure Valuation toolkit. You can register
attendance here.
Future Water Policy “An Issue That Affects All Of Us”, Says Environment Minister
“Members of the public can have their say on how the country’s water supplies are managed in
the future.” The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has today
launched an online survey, asking people to give their ideas ahead of the Water White Paper.
The Water White Paper, due to be published early next summer, will set out the Government’s
plans for the water industry. It will address challenges such as future resource needs, charging
and affordability.”
New Research Shows A Deposit Refund Scheme Would Work In The Uk
The Campaign to Protect Rural England has published new research that details the economic,
social and environmental benefits a UK-wide deposit refund scheme would provide. A small
deposit would be placed on glass, aluminium and plastic drinks containers to encourage people
to return them for recycling, rather than throwing them away as litter or in a bin. You can read a
summary of the research and find out more about the positive difference the scheme could
make to our environment. & send a message to DEFRA
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The next Bulletin will be circulated on 11 October. Items submitted for inclusion should be
received by 8 October.
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To contribute to the NWEL Bulletin, please contact:
Peter Wilson, Regional NWEL Co-ordinator
pwilson@lancswt.org.uk or 0151 924 2981

To contribute to the policy work of VSNW, please contact:
Warren Escadale, Policy & Communications Officer
Email: warren.escadale@vsnw.org.uk or Tel: 0161 276 9307
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