The government has said (apparently) that the Safer Stronger Communities investment (SSCF) for year 1 has to be spent by the end of the financial year. This is regrettable because the first half of the year has been spent talking to residents in the SSCF neighbourhood and setting up the board, which was further delayed because of a change in policy by the Local Strategic Partnership to hold elections for the board.

The upshot of trying to get the community involved in the process is that now there is an almighty rush to get the money spent. Of course, there are all sorts of lead times for spending in local government, which means that realistically we have to have a proposal for the spend in the next couple of weeks.

This represents 1/3 of all the capital spend – in other words, the bricks and mortar changes in the Digmoor area…

It’s disappointing that, because there has been an attempt to engage with the community, the board now has to go back to the County and District councils to draw up plans quickly to spend the money. A cynic would suggest that the process was set up this way to bounce the board into going along with what the council wants. I tend to think it’s more cock-up than stitch-up. I hope I’m not being naive.