Quote:
Originally Posted by gondola
I see the Community Development Fund has allocated funding to the ‘Why I Live Here’ project.
I wonder if Gayle would care to disclose the amount allocated to this project, and exactly what is hoped to be achieved from such an investment.
Another way to put it is this using a hypothetical scenario- if the Community Development fund was Gayle’s own hard earned money which had to be dedicated to developing Hyndburn, would she have considered the ‘Why I Live Here’ project as the most suitable investment for such a purpose?
Not rejecting the idea, simply wishing to find out more
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This has already been talked about
http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=26113
so quite happy to disclose the amount as it was published in the Accrington Observer at the back end of last year and also published on here. No secrets.
The results of this project are an exhibition (at the Haworth Art Gallery in July) of the photos taken, a DVD of the interviews, a book and an event. The artist/interviewers and photographers visited 50 people from all different faith backgrounds (it was important that we spoke to minority faiths and atheists as well as what could be considered more mainstream faiths). Their views were then collated and the text for the book written, what struck the artist/interviewer was that despite different cultural backgrounds we all have the same fears, dreams, goals etc. He created a text that was the sound of all the voices singing in unison (sounds a bit arty farty so apologise for that one but at the end of the day it's an arts project, the exhibition and dvd are far more conventional).
In answer to the questions 'what will all this achieve' - well, apart from all the people that came to the event from various public bodies the Chief Exec of Hyndburn heard about this project before the event and requested a stack of invitations for Councillors and officers to attend the event - some did. Thus, the views of the people who participated were (and will be as the information gets circulated) heard by the right people, people who's job it is to be interested in this subject matter.
However, that wasn't the sole purpose, that was just an additional benefit. The purpose was to get people, who are not normally involved with this type of project, together in a project/room to see that people have more similarities than differences. It was a really positive experience.
The results of the project can be used as a promotion for this area as the majority of things that people said were positive.
As for the money, well yes, it's easy to say that it's a waste of money because it is a lot of money but I would definitely argue that it's not a waste (well of course, I'd argue that because my job depends on it
). From a personal perspective I believe that Hyndburn should get a slice of every pie that's going. Hyndburn has just managed to haul itself out of the bottom 50 most deprived areas in the country which sounds good but in fact means that the area will now lose out on a huge amount of additional funding.
By applying and often getting this type of funding it means that the area benefits in more ways than one - you have to consider how the money is actually spent to see the real benefit. Some people imagine that the money, once allocated, disappears into a black hole, but it actually goes into the local economy. Wherever possible I use local people for these things - obviously it's not always possible so sometimes they come from other areas of East Lancashire - it is very rare that I use someone from outside East Lancashire. So take for example the money spent on the entertainment at the event - two local musicians - they got £150 between them to perform. They will then do their shopping at a local shop, perhaps buy a pub in the local pub and then perhaps buy a shirt off the market - the pub that they spend the money in the benefits because they are able to pay the wages of another local person and so on and so on as the money circulates - who knows but the odds are that the majority of that money will be spent with the area which means that Hyndburn in general has benefit from the additional funding beyond the life of the project. That's just a small example so multiply that up to the majority of the spend for the project, plus the other £100k that I've brought into the area over the last year or so - when it comes into the area, it's not just for the project it's for the benefit of the whole area.
So finally, yes my job does depend on this so quite rightly I defend it - however, I do appreciate that some people don't always see the benefit or purpose of the projects because they only see a small part of the overall effect. I will not stop trying to bring money into this area and I don't expect everyone to like everything I do.
As for another point you keep bringing up Gondola about the Olympics - can you say how they are going to benefit Hyndburn? As far as I can see they are going to reduce the amount of funding that is available for this area and whether you agree with my projects, or anyone elses for that matter, surely you can see that it is better to get the money into Hyndburn rather than spend billions on a massive advertising stunt for London.