New Deal is a big deal for the future

Project has turned around deprived areas, says Baroness

COMMUNITIES Minister Baroness Andrews has called on leaders across the country to build on the success of the New Deal for Communities programme.

New guidance, recently published, highlights the many ways the projects are working to continue to turn around the most deprived areas of the country.

The NDC in Hathershaw and Fitton Hill is holding a board meeting on Thursday to discuss its forward strategy.

Chief executive Gordon Roscoe said: “The NDC board has been working for over 12 months to develop a strategy to ensure that the results achieved during the lifetime of the programme are sustained well into the future.

The legacy of the NDC programme, which ends in 2010, will focus on sustaining key assets such as the Honeywell Centre, business workspace linked to the enterprise factory and the proposed sports zone in Fitton Hill.

“It is also important that the innovative work on community engagement continues,” he added.

So far, the rate of domestic burglaries in the area has been reduced by 60 per cent and the rate of crime has fallen faster than the rest of the borough.

Over 937 adults have been supported into training opportunities. Over 87 residential properties have undergone facelift improvements.

Since July, 2007, the NDC Jobshop has helped over 150 residents find jobs and another 450 are on the Jobshop’s database awaiting support to find work,

And more than 87 sets of alleygates have been installed to protect over 1,007 properties from crime.