Kirkby Times long pointed to the waste ground situated where Sacred Heart church was situated as being suitable for use for local kids.(pictured above) The idea was raised at an SRB meeting 3 years ago by a former SRB committee member who resigned due to the idea of this very same land being used. Now we find the idea has been 'resurrected' and the Knowsley Council Leisure and Community services 'Project Management Section' (more fat cats and pen pushers from the suburbs?) have posted by hand, a ' consultation document which we will publish below in its' entirety. Strange that the original idea by a local should be resurrected as an idea which has come from Council chambers and the 'experts' and 'right calibre people' paid silly amounts of money for supposedly managing community funds and our community.

Full text of 'consultation document'- an A4 piece of paper is published below

Leisure and Community services

Project management Section

Court hey Road, Roby Road

Huyton, Knowsley

Merseyside

Office telephone number 0151 443 3128

Fax 0151 443 3062

Email susan.callister@knowsley.gov.uk Click to E-mail here!

Consulting in northwood for Phase II

Return to Susan Callister by 31/10/03

Qst 1. Leisure and community services are working with the local community to develop plans for a new inclusive sports facility which will provide additional jobs and accredited training so that people in Northwood can access employment in the Leisure Industry. What are your initial thoughts on having this kind of facility in Northwood?

Qst 2. The plans are for the facility to be built next to Northwood house on the old church site, what do you think about the location?

(The 'consultation document' also came also included a handwritten message which said…. "could you please fill in and I'll pick up tomorrow" see below )

A poor way to conduct SRB business.

This is a poor way to conduct business. The local people here have long shouted for the idea and have been almost laughed at by some who work in Northwood House. Now we get an A4 piece of paper, supposedly a 'consultation' which has no real options for consultation. Two questions, and conflicting advice which first states we have until the 31 Oct to hand the form in and then a hurriedly scribbled handwritten message stating its actually 24hrs. It was posted by hand on the 28 Oct and we have 24 hrs to be 'consulted' on our opinions, all two of them! Why have we not had public meetings to discuss such a major proposal? Question No 2 states clearly that there are 'plans', this likely means that the project is going ahead and the consultation process is a formality. But who exactly are the locals who are being consulted? It looks like Knowsley Council are hoping to control the project from the word go but let's remember the local who initially suggested it at an SRB meeting, was ignored. This idea has been re -invented to maybe give the impression that Knowsley Councils Leisure Management Service were the ones who planned it. Truth is, they delayed it for at least 3 years and have left our kids hanging round the street corners.

SRB, Jim Keight and conflicts of interest.

Other locals have steered clear of the SRB group which only had a handful of carefully chosen locals on it. Generally the locals involved were locals who themselves received SRB Grants. This method of working means that locals in receipt of SRB funds are less likely to be critical or complain at the Council or KHT taking huge sums of money to use in their own projects. Worse of all, locals allowed the former dictator of Knowsley Council, Jim Keight, to have an extremely influential position on the SRB committee. Why did local people allow this? Keight does not live here and does not know the local area. The ex manger of Northwood House, the SRB headquarters - left for pastures new after being involved in some worrying schemes.

£178'000 SRB Funds to help Granada - remember that one?

This SRB committee allowed the SRB funds to be allocated to build another community centre of sorts by Sonae! - no-one ever heard what happened to the money and the locals involved in SRB and all Kirkby's community groups know that pointing fingers will put them 'out of favour' with the pen pushers they rely on for further funding and the jobs which are created. On July 2nd 2002 , Liverpool FC issued a statement which appeared under the headline 'Sonae Threat to TV project' in the Liverpool Echo. £178'000 was awarded out of Northwood SRB Funds to help Granada build this IT/Media training Centre, a much needed project given the absolutely appalling educational standards we have here. Kirkby Times has covered the allocation of SRB funds and anyone who has looked into the matter will conclude that it would be a damn good idea if we were to investigate with full scrutiny how the funds have been used or misused. The only people who seem to disagree are, you've guessed it, the SRB committee!

Will the Sports Centre be free to local kids?

The Council have already announced plans to build a new sports centre and we have a massive sporting facility just up the road from Northwood House called Liverpool FC academy, plus the private owned David Lloyd facility. Will this new small centre be able to offer free access to kids? - or are we going to see Knowsley Council using SRB money, once again, to fund projects which they themselves are obliged to fund! Will we be charged to actually use this service?

Type in - northwood srb - in the Kirkby Times search engine to see the other stories which are too numerous to link to here.

Coming soon - Kennlewood shops - the poor cousin of Northwood, why are SRB funds being used for Sayers, the Pound shop and a Big National Furniture retailers in the Town Centre (which isn't Northwood) and Kennlewood gets nothing? - what's going on there?

Remember - Kirkby Times is the ONLY public voice of opposition to the SRB big spenders. This matter has not been raised in the laughable Knowsley Challenge or the Kirkby Extra. Maybe they get SRB funds also! - or maybe being controlled 100% by the Council is not a great way to be allowed free speech.

This SRB money HAS to be accounted for and accounts should be made public on websites as an easy way for anyone to research, and also made put into an easily understood breakdown of expenditure. No-one with anything hide need fear this - and it would be easy to draw up simple guidelines which would facilitate a correct procedure. This is simply a safety mechanism to ensure money is not abused or mismanaged. I would be delighted to build a website which had this information relating to community organisations.

Let's hope the people of Northwood get to re-elect the officers involved in SRB dealings and that locals make up more a token percentage in future. This our money and is not a personal pot for people or organisations to dip into with no accountability to the locals here. Once this money is gone the Euro Gravy Train will cease.