Memorandum by West Lancashire District
Council (NT 08)
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The District Council welcomes the Committee's
Inquiry into New Towns and the opportunity to present evidence
to the Committee. We are also happy to be associated with the
joint submission made by the 10 Local Authorities in the New Towns
Group.
1.2 The District of West Lancashire includes
the former New Town of Skelmersdale. Skelmersdale in common with
other New Towns has now reached the point where regeneration of
the town centre and older employment and residential areas is
required.
2. REGENERATION
2.1 As the Sub-Committee will appreciate,
successful regeneration will require the identification, securing
and co-ordination of the necessary financial resources. The realisation
of the assets currently held by English Partnerships in Skelmersdale
would provide a potential route to this. Currently, when assets
are realised by English Partnerships the proceeds are not reinvested
locally, either to secure regeneration objectives or to help meet
the sometimes exceptional costs of service provision, which are
a legacy of the former New Towns design and layout. Furthermore
the former CNT assets now held by the Local Authority are subject
to clawback on disposal. Within Skelmersdale, English partnerships
currently have landholdings of some 62 hectares which contrasts
starkly with the Council's landholding of some 10 hectares. Of
this 10 hectares, some seven are in turn affected by clawback
which stands currently at 72 per cent of receipt and reducing
annually at 2 per cent.
2.2 The Sub-Committee should be aware that
the situation in former New Town areas with regard to their physical
fabric is compounded by two further factors. The first is the
short time frame within which the New Towns were constructed and
the second is the experimental construction techniques which were
often used. This has resulted in major refurbishment and replacement
being required also within a short timescale and this in many
areas is now becoming urgent. While the extensive areas of public
and communal open space and hard and soft landscaped areas within
the former New Town do much to enhance its setting and general
environment, they do add disproportionately to the local authority's
year on year maintenance costs.
2.3 The New Town of Skelmersdale in common
with other New Towns was planned to provide a better quality of
life for its residents than previously experienced in their inner
city source locations. The New Town was also seen as providing
a focus for sub-regional economic growth and development. It should
be remembered that at the point of transfer of planning and development
responsibilities from the CNT to the Local Authority, Skelmersdale
in common with other new towns was not in its planned "completed
state". Much remained to be done. To secure the development
that will take the New Town towards maturity and "normalisation"
requires resources that are beyond the District Council's means.
If Skelmersdale is to continue to progress and to fulfil the sub-regional
function originally envisaged for it, rather than slip into a
slow decline because it has been starved of resources, it is important
that regeneration initiatives are funded and commenced as soon
as possible. An essential piece of the resource jigsaw could be
provided if the English Partnership landholdings were transferred
to the Local Authority either without clawback or with minimal
clawback; a similar provision should also be made in relation
to the CNT assets previously transferred to the Local Authority.
These resources would provide an important addition to the National
and European Regeneration and Economic Development funding already
secured in the District.
3. DEMOCRATIC
CONTROL
3.1 It is strongly felt that the assets
and powers held by English Partnerships in the former New Town
area should be transferred to the local authority. This would
give proper local democratic control over the realisation and
reinvestment of assets within the Skelmersdale area. This local
democratic control should relate both to the District Council,
the elected democracy, and the Local Strategic Partnership, the
representative democracy. Given the Government's urging of greater
local democratic engagement and accountability and their desire
to see local communities at all levels more engaged in the decision-making
process around matters that affect their quality of life, English
Partnerships' current role in the new town appears both out of
step and anachronistic.
4. CONCLUSION
4.1 The District Council feels that the
time has come to critically review the role of English Partnerships
in relation to the former New Towns; to consider seriously the
returning of control of their assets there to the Local Authority.
With full democratic engagement and control and by working in
partnership with the LSP and RDA, urgent regeneration needs and
issues can be more effectively addressed, with the highest level
of community engagement and ownership. This we feel is the route
most likely to allow New Towns such as Skelmersdale to continue
to act as sub-regional growth centres by ensuring that there is
an adequate asset base available to deliver a "normalised"
situation.
4.2 New Towns are no longer new but action
is necessary if their initial successes are to be built upon and
emerging and urgent regeneration issues are to be addressed.
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