A new champion for
town’s older people
by David Skentelbery
OLDER people in Warrington are to get a new champion ? a new organisation due to be set up next month.
The Older People?s Partnership Board will be established before the end of September, if council chiefs give the go-ahead.
It will take on responsibility of the council?s strategy for an ageing population and promote and monitor the implementation of its action plan.
Warrington has a growing population of pensioners. By 2021 it is forecast that it will have risen by 37 per cent.
Alongside this, old people?s expectations are rising. They want more services, tailored to individual needs, with more flexibility and choice. They want to be able to pursue a range of education and leisure activities.
The borough council started work on an older person?s strategy two years ago. In September 2004, following a conference involving older people and professionals, a group of pensioners volunteered to work with professionals in a new partnership to develop the strategy.
Last year, the Older Persons Engagement Group (OPEG) was set up to provide a voice for older people, challenging and working with organisations to improve the quality of life for pensioners in the town.
It is proposed that the board consist of 50 per cent from OPEG and 50 per cent from the main statutory partners, including the council, the NHS Trust, the Police and the Voluntary Sector and Faith communities.
The main aims including promoting involvement of older people in decision making, developing a culture of involving older people, making links with private and independent sector partners, agreeing joint responses to central government initiatives and exploring opportunities for co-ordinating the commissioning of services.
Six areas have already been identified that require action: accessibility of NHS clinics, car parking and accessibility of taxis in the town centre, life long learning; leisure, cultural and supporting facilities; take up of specific public services target on older people and publication of information about services for older people.
A document entitled ?Building the Voice of Older People, a Warrington Strategy for an Ageing Population? has already been published on the borough council website www.warrington.gov.uk
?1.7 million scheme
will transform housing
by Lesley Wilkinson
A ?1.7 million scheme will transform housing in an area of Fairfield, Warrington.
The funding from the Housing Corporation will provide social housing and affordable homes under the Homebuy initiative.
Local residents were invited to a recent consultation meeting at the Community House on Robson Street, where staff from Warrington Housing Association showed site plans and computer graphics of the development.
The proposals mean properties in Robson Street will be demolished and replaced with 40 new homes (32 for rent and eight to be sold under the Homebuy initiative), in the area bounded by Robson Street and Helsby Street.
Local councillor Yvonne Fovargue (pictured)said: “This development is welcomed as it will provide social housing for rent as well as affordable homes for purchase at a time when many people simply cannot afford to get onto the housing ladder.
“I am pleased that under the proposals the play area currently located on Robson Street will be retained and improved but I will be working hard to ensure that the loss of the community house on Robson Street will not mean the end to community activities in the area but that alternative provision can be arranged nearby,” she said.
Existing residents on Robson Street are being offered alternative accommodation. A section of the site is used for a clinic, which has planning permission until January next year, and councillors are contacting the Primary Care Trust to request that health facilities are not lost in the area.
Tenants rewarded for
“clean up” efforts
by John Hendon
HOUSING chiefs were so impressed when tenants on Warrington?s Bewsey Estate carried out a major tidy up of their gardens that they stepped in with a garden full of bedding plants and ornaments as a ?thank you.?
Residents in Molyneux Avenue, Southworth Avenue and Reid Avenue got rid of piles of garden rubbish, planted bedding plants and generally provided the area with a splash of summer colour.
Staff from Golden Gates Housing ? Warrington Borough Council?s housing management company ? were so delighted they decided to offer more plants and garden ornaments so residents could add even more colour.
The big clean up was just one of 24 Golden Gates Housing initiatives during the year on estates across the borough.
Skips were provided for the rubbish.
More clean up days are scheduled in the year, at St Peter’s Way, Westy, Poplars, Watkin Street, Alder Lane and mid-Orford. More details can be obtained by ringing by ringing Golden Gates Housing free 0n 0800 25 26 27 or by visiting www.goldengateshousing.org.uk
Golden Gates Housing manage 9,300 homes on behalf of the council.
University to pioneer
eating disorder research
by Lesley Wilkinson
CELEBRITIES under pressure to maintain a perfect “body image” is just one of the topics studied by a professor who will be working at the Warrington Campus of the University of Chester.
The increasing numbers of people suffering from eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, will also feature in his work as the university becomes a pioneering centre for research.
Professor Michael Thomas has been appointed Dean of the School of Health and Social Care at the university. He specialises in the treatment of people with chronic and enduring eating disorders, and joins the university on October 1 from Leeds Metropolitan University.
He is a former submariner having joined the Royal Navy from school and serving as a communications and tactical operator on submarines. He then trained as a mental health nurse, and developed a particular interest in eating disorders in the 1980s. He later led a research programme, which discovered a groundbreaking treatment achieving a 76 per cent success rate.
He said: “It is widely recognised that the number of people with eating disorders is increasing rapidly.
“Eating disorders can affect all members of society as can be seen in the media coverage of celebrities under pressure to maintain a certain body image.?
The School of Health and Social Care is the major provider of pre-registration education for nurses, midwives and assistant practitioners across Cheshire, Wirral and Warrington.
Youths took car
from outside house
by staff reporter
POLICE are searching for three youths who took a car from outside a house at Warrington, drove it off at speed and then set it on fire.
The white Ford Fiesta was taken from a house in Oakwood Avenue at 2am and driven in the direction of Winwick.
Neighbours saw three youths get into the car and drive off.
Later the vehicle was found burned out in Grasmere Avenue, Orford.
Anyone who witnessed any part of the incident, or who has any information at all, is asked to call police on 0845 458 0000.
Mental health
consultation
by staff reporter
A SERIES of consultation meetings is being held on the future of Adult Mental Health Services across Warrington.
The meetings will focus on the “Change for the Better” consultation document drawn up by the Five Borough’s Partnership NHS Trust.
Warrington Borough Council has joined with neighbouring authorities to form a Statutory Joint Scrutiny Committee to consider the document.
Meetings will be held at 4pm at Runcorn Town Hall, Hall Heath Road, Runcorn, Cheshire, on Thursdays August 10, August 24
(at 4.30pm) and September 7. Further details are available from Alison Williams on 01925 442075 or e mail [email protected]
