Case Study: Allerdale

The evolution of the partnership between the Borough Council and North Allerdale Development Trust (NADT) underpins the learning outcomes that this Advancing Assets Round 2 demonstration area has contributed to the programme.

The original North Allerdale Action Plan (2002) represented the culmination of three years community consultation with residents, community groups and voluntary, public and private sector representatives. It was born from the development of market town partnerships in the rural towns of Aspatria, Silloth and Wigton as the means to address the social, economic and environmental decline widely accepted as synonymous with rural decline throughout Great Britain. The North Allerdale Partnership (NAP) came together as part of the national Market Towns Initiative to address these issues collectively, whilst individual town partnerships developed action plans to identify local issues and projects with the potential to provide a context-specific response and help regenerate the town centres.

A Masterplan for Wigton’s townscape (2005) led to a brief looking at the case for development of the town’s Market Hall. Linked to the Borough Council’s Corporate Improvement Plan 2008-11, wherein the local authority committed to increase the number of one-stop-shops available to residents to bolster access to key services, the Council subsequently agreed to partner with the NAP and apply for funding from the Community Assets Programme to refurbish and transfer the asset into community ownership. They were notified of their success in Spring 2008 – see: dedicated case study. Since then, the partnership has continued to develop - NAP became the North Allerdale Development Trust (NADT) in early 2008, and funding from the Council facilitated the appointment of a dedicated CeX from March 2009 to drive forward their joint plans. They worked together towards a second transfer of the Wigton Community Centre (WCC) with support from the Advancing Assets demonstration programme. 

The WCC benefits from a town-centre location and was closed in the face of poor health and safety standards – attracting significant public concern about the availability of space for community activities. It is envisaged that the WCC should serve as an economic counterweight to the Market Hall for NADT. Hence, the Advancing Assets programme supported an options appraisal to look at the focus for activity to be housed in the WCC with the future viability of NADT born firmly in mind. The programme also provided much needed training around the build project and building management for the Trust, in addition to contributing to development of a related community asset transfer framework for the local authority.   

The level of commitment and support from the Council has done much to contribute to the partnership’s success to date – seconding staff to the Trust, paying consultants to work on the partnership’s Capital Delivery Plan in respect of the Market Hall, as well as establishing an inclusive project steering group for the build phase of the project. It has also refurbished the WCC in advance of its transfer to NADT in Spring 2009. However, it is the emphasis placed upon community engagement efforts, true partnership working with the local third sector and a strategic approach to asset management which underpins the good practice demonstrated in Allerdale.

Useful Links:
Allerdale Borough Council – http://www.allerdale.gov.uk/
North Allerdale Partnership - http://www.n-a-p.info/