Forum wants time for partnerships

Urban Forum will push the government to give the 88 most deprived
areas with local strategic partnerships more time to achieve their
aims.

The regeneration body will also campaign for LSPs in other areas to
become eligible for community empowerment fund cash.

Rupa Sarkar, LSP project officer, said it was clear that those
areas without CEF had less developed LSPs and often no community
empowerment network.

She said that the organi-sation would also seek clarity of the term
“mainstreaming”. A spokesperson for the Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister said the department was reviewing what was meant by
“mainstreaming”.

Also, Sarker said the Urban Forum wanted to clarify the roles and
responsibilities of the government offices, regional co-ordination
units, local authorities, regional development agencies and
Neighbourhood Renewal Unit. “When you are contacting them you need
to know what kind of support they can offer you and what kind of
responsibilities they have to you.”