EXECUTIVE MEMBER
REPORT TO COUNCIL
11th January 2012
Newham Grange Country Farm
The Farm has had an improved trading year to date with over £125,000 income by the end of November compared to £102,000 or lower in previous years. By the end of March 2012, the Farm Manager is projecting income that will be 40% higher than last year which is excellent performance given the current economic downturn. The Farm's Consultative Committee met on 18th November 2011 and looked at performance and development plans and offered advice. I was particularly pleased to see that Middlesbrough College students have entered into a joint venture to design and build a crazy golf course facility on the farm as part of their academic studies, which I am told will be open next April to add to the range of attractions available to visitors. The Consultative Committee looked at the design options and gave the students feedback.
Public consultation is taking place on a proposed small wind turbine near the middle of the site. A study by the National Renewable Energy Centre has concluded that the 10KW turbine will not cause environmental nuisance, enhance the farms educational objectives and produce a net profit of £136,000 to the Council over the next 20 years. One hundred letters were delivered to nearby householders and two public meetings held. Only one resident attended and said he had no concerns when he saw the small scale of the proposal.
Two new animals have added a dash of festive fun to the farm with the arrival of two reindeer. They are currently living indoors, but will soon have their own enclosure next to the Farm’s wallabies. The reindeer are proving popular with local children and hopefully will become firm favourites and help continue the rising trend in income.
Middlesbrough Environment City - Free Range Kids
Middlesbrough Environment City has been awarded a grant of £62,484 from the Big Lottery Fund for a two year project to encourage children and young people to become more physically active and improve their health and life skills. The “Free Range Kids” project will provide a range of challenging outdoor activities through the exploration of the natural environment of the town. In particular, the project will use the Forest Schools approach of encouraging children to use woodlands in active and contemplative play, through activities such as hide and seek, den building, journal writing and storytelling. An Officer will be appointed to undertake the project, which will also work with parents and carers to develop their play skills, enabling them to enjoy more active outdoor play activities with their children. The project will take place across Middlesbrough, with a particular focus on areas where there is a particular health and educational need.
Rainbow Leisure Centre Redevelopment
The Rainbow Leisure Centre has received funding from NHS Middlesbrough to convert a vacant space into a gym facility by extending the existing X4 Gym. The increased capacity of the facility will alleviate overcrowding and will create a better opportunity to work with target community groups delivering health-related programmes of activity. The extension will ease that pathway for new groups and individuals to enter health programmes.
Sports Hall Athletics
13 primary schools from across Middlesbrough took part in the 6th Middlesbrough Primary Schools’ Sports Hall Athletics Championships at the Rainbow Leisure Centre on Wednesday 9th November. Nearly 400 pupils were involved in the activity. The event was organised by Middlesbrough Council’s Sports Development Team and overseen by students from Macmillan College and Middlesbrough College. The students from Macmillan College had recently completed a Sports Hall Athletics officiating course. This event was the ideal opportunity to put their newly acquired skills to the test.
Pallister Park School won the boys’ event whilst Marton Manor School won the girls’ competition. Both schools will now represent Middlesbrough Primary Schools at the Tees Valley Sports Hall Athletics Final to take place at Eston Academy Thursday 12th January 2012. All children that participated in the Middlesbrough Final also received information on how to continue their interest in athletics at Clairville Stadium and Middlesbrough Athletics Club.
Swimming Lessons - Rainbow Leisure Centre
Uptake of swimming lessons at the Rainbow Leisure Centre has reached a high. At present, there are 1077 participants per 12 week block which is 99% of absolute capacity. Eighteen months ago, uptake for a similar 12-week block was only 570 people. This significant increase in numbers is due to some valuable work by the Swimming Development Manager and good ideas being generated by staff. A recent survey, undertaken as part of the Middlesbrough Swimming Strategy, identified the growth of the swimming lessons is due to reputation and word of mouth promotion. In the same survey the quality of swimming teaching at the Rainbow was rated as GOOD (38%) and EXCELLENT (60%) by the swimming lesson customers.
Neptune – Swimming Lessons for Deaf Women
Funding from a Disability programme has enabled some creative work to be developed at the Neptune. The Sports Development Team and Swimming Development Officer have worked with Adult Social Care to organise swimming lessons for deaf women. The majority of the group are Asian. The immediate area of the learner pool will be staffed by female lifeguards and the programme will use female instructors. A sign language interpreter will be present throughout the sessions. It is hoped that once the attendees have water confidence the women will continue to swim in either existing female only sessions or in public swimming sessions.
Middlesbrough’s Olympic Torch Bearers
Middlesbrough Council has been able to nominate two people to carry the Olympic Flame as it passes through Middlesbrough in June 2012. A small number of very high quality nominations were made with selection being overseen by Tees Valley Sport and myself. The selection process has resulted in one school based and one community based volunteer being successful. Both nominees have a history of being generous with their time in facilitating sport and are admirable role models in the community.
Nunthorpe Squash Festival 2011
Children at five primary schools have each received four weeks of squash coaching. Year 6 children benefited from the scheme whereby a qualified squash coach delivered in-school coaching. Each class visited Nunthorpe Squash Club and in November and a team of two boys and two girls from each school returned for a squash festival. The winning school was St Augustine's in Coulby Newham with Chandlers Ridge in Nunthorpe one point behind. Children will be encouraged and supported in continuing their involvement in the sport.
Over 50s Football
A second programme of over 50s football was launched in November and has attracted an average of 16 people playing each week. Previous to these football sessions, the majority of players participated in very little or no physical exercise. The attendees have commented on how much healthier and happier they feel to be playing sport again and have now decided to set up an extra session and play twice a week.
Rainbow Leisure Centre and Cutting Corner
A joint venture with 'The Cutting Corner', a hairdressers formerly based in the In Shops, has allowed a local business that has operated in the area for 15 years to continue trading with the closure on the In Shops. Ten jobs have been saved and the partnership will produce additional rent income for the Rainbow Leisure Centre. The Cutting Corner was awarded the lease following a competitive tender process and is now open for business in the former Cafe area. The cafe has been scaled down to a lobby style bar cafe next to the hairdressers as part of a wider review of leisure catering services to reduce costs. The Rainbow Centre Hub area now includes a hairdresser, beauty room, cafe, library and a dance studio.
Stewart Park Update
As part of the Heritage Lottery funded Parks for People project, the lower lake restoration work is now completed with all the paths in place. New planting has been added to the lake edging and along a new picnic area. The upper ponds have been extensively refurbished and new planting added to the lake margins and new bridges installed with new footpaths running through the woodlands. A new gate has been funded by the Friends of Stewart Park. New seats, benches, recycling bins and cycle stands have been installed and the orienteering space is complete depicting Captain Cooks Voyages. Work on a new playground work is under way and due for completion in January 2012. Work on the Temple, Loggia and Captain Cooks vase is complete. Refurbishment of the Marton crossroad and Stokesley road entrances is underway. I am advised that whole refurbishment scheme in Stewart Park will be completed by March 2012 ready for a launch event afterwards
Smoking in Middlesbrough Update
Smoking remains the single biggest preventable cause of premature death in the UK today. Around half of all long-term smokers will eventually die as a result – about 15 people a day in the North East alone. FRESH Smokefree North East has recently launched two leaflets to provide a snapshot of the current smoking concerns in Middlesbrough. The leaflets entitled “Smoking – The Facts” and “Fresh Public Opinion,” have been given to all partners at a recent Smoke Free Middlesbrough Alliance Meeting.
Key points identified include:
- The current level of smoking in adults in Middlesbrough is 26.6% (rising to 29.9% in routine/manual workers), which equates to approximately 30,000 smokers across Middlesbrough.
- At current smoking levels, there will be approximately 243 deaths in Middlesbrough each year in adults aged 35 and over which are directly attributable to smoking.
- Overall, smoking related disease in Middlesbrough is estimated to cost the NHS £6.5 million per year
- Smoking during pregnancy was at the rate of 27.2% (compared to 21.1% in the North East and 13.5% Nationally)
The Alliance, which is coordinated by the Community Protection Service, is a multi-agency team working together on measures to reduce smoking rates and tackle health inequalities. The North East has already achieved the biggest drop in adult smoking rates across England from 29% in 2005 to 22% in 2009. The challenge for local partners is to ensure that Middlesbrough's smoking rates decline more rapidly in the coming years.
Communities for Health Small Grants Scheme (update)
Middlesbrough Council and NHS Middlesbrough continue to work together to improve health and wellbeing through an ongoing Communities for Health Small Grants Scheme. The £29,000 fund pot from NHS Middlesbrough gives community groups in Middlesbrough an opportunity to develop and deliver health improvement initiatives that tackle poor health linked to obesity, diet or physical inactivity.
The scheme, which is managed by the Community Protection Service, offers community and voluntary groups in Middlesbrough an opportunity to apply for grants of between £250 and £2,500. The scheme was launched in September 2011 and so far has awarded ten grants totalling £14,830. Three applications have been deferred pending enquires on other sources of funding. Since the grants management award panel met in October 2011, enquiries continue to be made and a further seven applications have been received. Public Health Officers are working with recipients of grants to help with health outcomes and to monitor the expenditure awarded.
The successful local community groups to receive funding to date include; Fairbridge, a powerchair football club, the Middlesbrough Live at Home scheme, Hollis Court Residents Association, an ethnic minorities training and education project, a cricket coaching group, the East Middlesbrough Boxing Club, the Friends of Stewart Park, a local football club and a Health Through Activity Club.
Anyone interested in the scheme should either contact the Community Protection Service or check out the Council's website for details.
Stiff Penalty for Tobacco Sellers
Members will recall that in my last report I referred to the case of a couple who had been found guilty of selling illegal counterfeit cigarettes (to both adults and children) from their home in the town. Their activities had been brought to light as part of our Trading Standards team’s long running efforts to tackle the blight of tobacco houses in Middlesbrough. People selling fake cigarettes from their houses are undermining the health of the town by supplying to children, increasing overall consumption as a result of low prices and supplying fake products which we have shown contain even more tar and harmful chemicals than genuine brands.
At the time of my last report no penalty had been imposed on the couple who were due to return to court in November to learn their fate.
I can now report that both individuals received a 12 month Community order and a 12 month Supervision order. In addition they were told to pay a total of £1930 in fines and costs. (Members may have seen a large investigative article in the Evening Gazette shortly afterwards, based on this case and the other tobacco control activities of our Trading Standards section).
In the past twelve months five cases have been taken to court involving tobacco sales from houses (a further two being dealt with via alternative sanctions). Although initially fines were predictably small, as the scale of the problem has become more apparent, penalties have risen to a level where they represent a real deterrent to those involved, particularly as conviction has also led to other sanctions such as suspension from work and tenancy downgrading.
There are currently a further four cases at various stages within the legal process.
Receipt of clear and accurate intelligence is essential in maximising the continued effectiveness of the team’s surveillance work. To this end, staff have been providing briefings to the police, fire service, street wardens and Erimus Housing to ensure that the evidence they supply provides the best possible chance of detection. Staff also participated on the panel of a recent “Turning off the Tap” event for West Middlesbrough Neighbourhood Trust which allowed the same information to be given to youth workers and teachers.
With over 60 houses having been reported to date, there is clearly a lot left to do, but considerable inroads have now been made and the work continues unabated.
Brenda Thompson