Concern was expressed by members of Willenhall Local Neighbourhood Partnership (LNP) representing community groups that they would be left out in the cold as a result of proposed changes to Local Partnerships reports Liberal Democrat councillor Ian Shires.

The concerns were voiced following a presentation by Clive Wright, Director of the Walsall Strategic Partnership, outlining the “Developing Model for Neighbourhood Management in Walsall”.

The current system was a bit hit and miss. Depending upon where you lived the amount of involvement of local community groups varies from no involvement, to taking a full part in the LNP.

In Willenhall the LNP had built on the Local Committees that already existed in Willenhall Town Centre and New Invention, the aim being to have a Community Forum which operated across all three wards (Willenhall North, Short Heath and Willenhall South) linking into the LNP helping to bring third sector grant monies into the area.

It was felt that the proposed system could side-line the community, handing power to the officers within the various partners.

Chair of Willenhall LNP, councillor Ian Shires said, “Sufficient flexibility had been built into the new model to allow Willenhall LNP to continue to build on the work it had already done, giving the local community a say, for the first time, in how budgets are spent in the area.

“The new model also came with an Area Manager whose role will be to ensure decisions made by the Partnership are carried through, something which was difficult to achieve under the current system.”

The Draft Plan goes forward to Full Council and then onto the Strategic Partnership before coming into effect in April 2010.