living places newsletter | September 2009

Welcome to the September living places newsletter

There is a lot happening in September – take a look at the calendar to sign up for some interesting events. As always, please keep us updated with what is happening with living places in your area.

Leah Whittingham, Programme Manager
Helen Cooper, Programme Support Officer 

Eco-towns Seminar

An exciting seminar on how living places and the Culture and Sport Planning Toolkit in particular can contribute to the development of the proposed Eco-towns will be held at the Lightbox in Woking on 14th September 2009.

Set in an award winning venue, the seminar will include representatives from MLA, CLG and local authorities in discussion about the importance of culture and sport to the overall planning process.

This event has been organised to create an opportunity for Living Places Partners to meet the developers and local authorities responsible for building the Eco Towns.

Spaces are running out so to reserve your space please contact either batool.khan@mla.gov.uk or Leah.whittingham@mla.gov.uk.

Art in empty spaces

The Arts Council programme Art in empty spaces, is being run in partnership with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG)’s scheme Looking after our town centres, which is investing £3 million to reinvigorate ailing town centres during the recession. The £500,000 initiative, now open for applications, is intended to help artists and arts organisations turn vacant high street shops into vibrant artistic places.

For more information see the Arts Council website.

CSPT Seminars

The September TCPA Journal will feature an article on the toolkit and the seminar series. Fitpro News also featured an article on the CSPT seminar series recently as well. Click here to download the full article.

Other news

In a recent interview in Regen and Renewal, with the Employment Minister Jim Knight announced a £1 billion government initiative to fund 47,000 jobs for young people including sports coaching. Click here for more information.

Arts Council (England) recently awarded eighteen grants of between £75,000 and £900,000 to key arts organisations including Birmingham’s Ikon gallery and several classical musical institutions, as part of the Sustain Scheme. The £40 million programme, designed to support creative and cultural organisations that may be struggling financially due to the recession, will run over two years and has attracted over 100 applications to date. See the Art's Council's website to find out more.

The Total Pilot scheme, introduced by the Department for Communities and Local Government has been introduced to monitor Local Authority spending on major regeneration related projects across England. Birmingham, Lewisham (in London) and Durham are among 13 of the selected Local Authorities. Spending will be categorised into a range of areas including regeneration, children’s health and well being, housing and tackling crime related issues. The findings of the scheme will be published next February. Follow this link for more information on Total Pilot.

In our last poll a majority of 79% of respondees thought that culture and sports investment will survive the recession.

This month’s question is “Do you think that a successful eco-town should have planning for culture and sport at the heart of its development?” Have your say here.

September

2nd: UK Cultural Connections 09, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
8th: launch of Talking Shop Pennine Lancashire
10th: Partnership for Schools Annual Forum 
14th: Eco-towns seminar - The Lightbox, Woking
15th: Greener Museums Workshop
22nd: first meeting of the CSPT advisory group

October

1st: London
5th: North West
14th: Yorkshire and Humber
16th: West Midlands
21st: South West
22nd: South East
29th: North East

November

3rd: South East
25th: living places Network Event - Southbank, London
30th: East of England

If you have an event you would like included please email Helen Cooper.

BURA

For all BURA events visit their online calendar.

If you would like to include any information in the newsletter then send your contributions, by the second week of each month, to the living places Programme Support Officer, Helen Cooper.

We are looking in particular for updates on activity, information on events and training in your area that other members might be interested in attending and the sharing of best practice. This could take the form of a case study, for example. This newsletter is for you and we would like to make it as interesting and relevant as it can be.