Walsall’s Tory Cabinet has dumped the responsibility for delivering a much watered down programme of events for young people during the long summer holiday onto Local Neighbourhood Partnerships (LNPs) reports cllr. Ian Shires

The fiasco of the “Ready Steady Summer” issue dropped through the letter box of LNP members in the form of a letter from the Head of Libraries & Culture today (Friday).

LNP members have been told that because of the lack of funding from partners on the Walsall Borough Strategic Partnership (the LNP’s Parent body)  there would be no money to run this year’s “Ready Steady Summer” events.

At the 11th hour the letter announced that Walsall MBC had found some monies in “contingencies” which would enable each of the 9 LNPs to fund projects in their areas up to a total of £3,000. Bids for the cash have to be in by 14th July 2008.

“This is a clear case of the Tories trying to shift the blame for a fiasco of their making onto members of the 9 LNPs” said Ian.

“How can LNPs, who have seen their budgets slashed again this year by the Tory majority on the council, be expected to put together a meaningful programme of events for young people in just three weeks when some, like Willenhall LNP, don’t have a scheduled meeting till 16th July2008. Two clear days after bids close!!” he added.

A further issue is that as the money has been set at £3,000 per LNP, Willenhall and Bloxwich LNPs will be short changed, as both are made up of 3 council wards whilst all the others have 2 wards.

Ian has demanded that an urgent meeting of LNP Chairs be called for next week to thrash out the issues with the Tory cabinet member. We will keep you posted.