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ALDERMAN JOSEPH HATTAM

It was with great sadness and regret that we learnt two weeks ago about the death of Joe Hattam after a long illness.

Joe had lived in Birtley all his life and had served the Community well and in many different ways. He had been a Parish Councillor, then a Gateshead Ward Councillor and served twice as Mayor of Gateshead. He sat on many different committees, chairing a number of them, and latterly he was one of the founder members of the Birtley Community Partnership. He did lots of things behind the scenes that would benefit the wider community in Birtley.

He will be missed by everyone who knew him, and our thoughts and prayers, are with his family at this time.

Article taken from the Gateshead Post, 24th December 2008 by Zoe Burn

Birtley is to benefit from a new state-of-the-art community centre after a cash injection from the Government’s £30m Community Assets programme.

Birtley Community Partnership will use the £166,755 grant to convert the town’s old library building into the Birtley Community Hub.

The new centre will house office accommodation for charities and community groups, meeting rooms, an ICT training suite and cafe.

The Community Assets scheme is funded by the Government and delivered by the Big Lottery Fund.

Gateshead Council has agreed the transfer of the old library in Birtley under leasehold for 99 years on a peppercorn rent.

Birtley Community Partnership will use it as a permanent base to develop it’s own aims and objectives as well as providing facilities for a credit union and the North East Council for Addictions (NECA).

It will become the central community resource for more than 30 member groups and organisations, providing flexible spaces to hold meetings, lectures, advice workshops and training sessions.

ICT equipment will be available on both floors and a refreshment area will service the main drop-in area of the building.

In April this year [2008], the project was one of 38 to be short-listed for potential funding from this Government programme to enable voluntary and community organisations to have greater control over the community assets they use.

Ian Caddy, Birtley Community Hub project leader, said: “We are delighted to be awarded this funding from Community Assets.

“The funding could not have come at a better time for Birtley to develop our resource and drop-in centre. With the uncertainty in the economy we will be able to deliver help, support, and hope, not only to the local community and businesses but the surrounding area.”

We also have £25,000 from SITA Trust which will help to ensure the hub is finished to a high quality.

Gateshead Council and the Birtley Community Partnership have continued to work together to implement the recommendation from the review.

Town Centre

You will notice that nearly all the shops within the Co-Op building have undergone shop front improvements and improvements have been undertaken to the canopy at the Arndale Centre.  The removal of the seats and planters from outside the Arndale building have also greatly improved the appearance of the area.

More Facilities for Children and Young People

• ‘Friends of Elisabethville’ have been given the lease of the building on Birch Terrace and funding has been obtained to undertake repairs to the building.  It is anticipated that it will be suitable for use by Summer 2008.  The group are working with a wide range of service providers including Birtley Children’s Centre and a range of services are delivered from the ‘Friends of Elisabethville’ community building.
• The Children’s Centre that is based at the Barley Mow Primary School site is developing and will provide a ‘one-stop centre’ for children under five, their siblings and family.  It is planned to open Summer 2008 and The Council and Birtley Community Partnership are promoting their work.
• Improvements have been carried out to Barley Mow Village Hall to create a space that is more accessible for young people to use.

Public Art

Fiona Gray’s artwork has been installed on the grassed land at the front of St Joseph’s Church.

A formal opening of the artwork will take place once a name has been decided for the sculpture.

What Next?

There are only 8 actions left in the Best Value Review action plan to still fully implement which should all be completed by the end of this year. These focus on parking enforcement, car park management, refurbushment of the old Co-Op building and 16 Harraton Terrace, improving town centre planning, analysis and monitoring of data regarding the use of facilities and the erection of a swinging sign at the Gateshead@Birtley building.

The Council will continue to work closely with the Birtley Community Partnership to help develop a further Neighbourhood Plan for the area, as agreed by the South Area Forum.

Facilities Deveopment

For many years Birtley AC have been trying to improve their training facilities in terms of an all weather track.  We now have the opportunity to do this at our new base at Lord Lawson School.  We are in negotiation to construct a 400m track on the existing sports field and also erect a community club house on the site.  We have also been offered the wooded area of land adjacent to the school which we plan to regenerate.

We hope that with better facilities we will attract and retain more athletes thus raising the profile of Birtley even further.  We have already attracted support across the area including the Birtley Community Partnership and members of the public.  There is obviously a financial cost involved and we are seeking to fund the inititative through fund raising, sponsorship, grants and contributions to our development fund.  We have already held events over the last 12 months and we are grateful to the members of the public who have supported us so far.

We are currently involved in a Norwich Union scheme to raise money for initiatives - we are currently lying first in the region.  This involves merely voting for the initative either online or by postal vote.

If you wish to support the initiative you can read about it, and vote for it, by logging onto www.joinourteam.com or alternatively you can visit Birtley Library, Birtley Swimming Baths or Birtley Leisure Centre and complete a postal vote.  The votes will then be collected and sent off to register on your behalf.

At Barley Mow Primary School, we believe that children need to be aware of their part in the greater community they live in.  We start from first principles, that being the family, and extend the boundaries outwards so that as children grow, their community awareness and involvement grows as well.  It is an important part of every child’s growth that they develop a sense of citizenship and belonging, especially to the community they live in.  We take the view that if children are involved, they are more likely to take ownership.

One of the most obvious ways in which we involve ourselves with our community is the introduction of the Birtley Children’s Centre @ Barley Mow.  Following the Gateshead Council review of Primary Education, it was identified that a significant number of surplus pupil places ixisted on our site, which was originally provided for up to 500 pupils.  We vacated what was the former Barley Mow Infants School and our main school is now completely housed in the former Junior School Building, with our Nursery remaining where it always has been.  We then actively pursued the redevelopment of the empty building for a community facility in a move towards regeneration.  We were pleased when the decision was taken to place the children’s centre on our site and we have worked very closely with the Local Authority in this redevelopment - including housing the Centre staff within our school until the Centre is available for occupation.

Through a variety of schemes, we involve our children with a number of different aspects of the greater Birtley Community.  These range from business links with local companies who support our school in a number of material ways, such as Dobbies Garden Centre and Carcraft, to national companies like Morrison Facilities Services, who we are working with as they refurbish a large number of houses on our estate.  This all helps to broaden our children’s horizons.

On a much more local level, we are very closely linked with the Vigo branch of the Women’s Institute.  For a number of years a band of their members have been coming into our school to teach traditional handcrafts to our Year 6 children and in return, learn some computer skills from the children!  After we received a National Impetus Award, the project has been the subject of a number of media features, including an article in the national WI Life magazine (circulated to all WI members in the country), a full page article and editorial comment in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, a 9 minute feature on BBC Radio 4’s programme ‘Women’s Hour’.  We have also had enquiries from Tyne Tees Television about doing a feature and representatives from a national charity charged with doing a case study on cross-generational projects.

We have been pleased to work with Birtley Community Partnership on a number of significant projects in the area and feel that our relationship has been mutually beneficial for our pupils and our community.

David Hewitson
Head Teacher
Barley Mow Primary School

There have been a number of names suggested for the ‘Birtley Sculpture’.

These have been submitted by the pupils from:

• Ravensworth Terrace Primary School
• Barley Mow Primary School
• Lord Lawson of Beamish School

A short list of 6 of the names has been made. NOW is the time for the people of Birtley to decide on which of those names is to be the official name for the sculpture.

You can also vote by using the ballot slips which can be found at:

• The Library
• The Swimming Pool
• The Leisure Centre
• The Churches
• Mary Sanders Hall
• Barley Mow Village Hall
• The Community Centre Ravensworth Road
• The Schools

Voting will close on Friday 11th July 2008.

Excerpt from Cabinet Office

07 April 2008

The Community Assets programme has announced the shortlist of schemes to reach final assessment. The programme, which is funded by the Office of the Third Sector and delivered by the Big Lottery Fund, is a programme to enable third sector organisations to have greater control over the assets they use, such as community buildings. Read the rest of this entry »

Residents of Birtley, Ouston, Gateshead Councillors, Officers from Durham County and Gateshead and Professor Paul Younger toured the completed restoration and landscaped St Bedes Landfill Site at the bottom of Station Lane. Read the rest of this entry »

The club was established in 1974. The original concept was, and still is, for the Club to be a ‘teaching’ and ‘water safety awareness’ organisation, that helps young people to understand the principles and to receive training in ‘lifesaving’, as well as assisting them to learn to swim and assist in their personal development in this leisure activity. Read the rest of this entry »