An innovative community project has recently received over £180,000 in funds, helping to establish reliable, affordable and good quality housing maintenance services for residents of several Accrington neighbourhoods.
‘Neighbourhoods Together’ is an enterprise set up by Hyndburn Neighbourhood Management, a member of Harvest Housing Group, on behalf of local residents, and was designed to ensure comprehensive, community based services to the neighbourhoods of Peel, Barnfield, Church, Central and Springhill.
In addition, it is hoped that the scheme will; address the issue of any unskilled doorstep callers employed to carry out maintenance work, make a positive step towards tackling deprivation in the area by increasing the economical activity within neighbourhoods, and create more training and employment opportunities for all including BME Groups and migrant workers.
During the initial implementation of the scheme, the Neighbourhood Management team will be in place to establish and support any activity; the community board members will then undertake responsibility.
Commenting on the Scheme, Neighbourhood Regeneration Officer for Hyndburn, Shameem Khan said:
“The funding we have received is the first major step towards establishing a multi faceted community based enterprise. All profits of the scheme will be ploughed back into more positive community initiatives, to ensure that the positive work in the area is sustained”.