Mail Weekly Column: 28 August 2023

Last year my team and I launched our All Together Alleys project - determined to take back control of some neglected community spaces for local residents, tidying them up and turning them back into areas that can be used by local residents and children.

We made real progress working with the neighbourhood team in Smeaton Street in Barrow to deep clean the back street, empty out festering rubbish, and to make a start on improving the local area. Unfortunately the winter months stopped play, but we picked the project back up last week and have almost finished the job, getting it to the point that residents can take over this vibrant community space.

This has been a massive community effort. When we arrived, the street didn’t drain, an abandoned car was surrounded by broken glass, and litter was everywhere. But thanks to a determined set of neighbours, and the support of local businesses and organisations, we’ve turned it around.

From that start we’ve: painted murals designed by pupils at St George’s School on the walls with masonry paint from Crown Decorating Centre; built planters from tyres donated by High Haume Farm; put together benches, repainted and re-rendered walls, and built planter towers, thanks to donations from Travis Perkins; filled our planters and herb gardens with plants, herbs and compost from Charnley’s; painted art and tidied up with the cement, paint, and volunteers lent by Story Construction, and put up plastic hearts (designed by St George’s pupils) that were created and donated by Furness Plastics.

I’m incredibly grateful to these brilliant local businesses for helping out so generously on this project, and also for lending people to make the transformation happen. This transformation wouldn’t have been possible without huge community support - including the Holiday Inn and The Well lending volunteers earlier in the year.

There’s a little more still to be done, but I’m so proud of my team and what they have managed to pull together. Alongside the pocket park that has opened on nearby Argyle Place with government funding which I was glad to support, there is now a much better provision of community space in that area of Barrow. It’s a small start, but it shows with determination what can be achieved.

My team are writing up a ‘lessons learned’ pack from this, and working to hand it over to the Council so that similar projects can be taken up and run.

You may have seen the article in The Times on Friday, asking if Barrow could be the new ‘powerhouse of the North’ as a result of the huge investment coming into our area thanks to Dreadnought and AUKUS. I’ve been working hard to make sure that the answer is a firm ‘yes’ and to get Government to work with us to leverage this investment and guarantee of jobs into real changes in our transport infrastructure, connectivity, investment into our public services, new housing, and improvements in our high streets to name a few. Only a few weeks ago we had the Cabinet Secretary here to discuss what delivery of that looks like.

It’s great to have Government listening and recognising Furness’ potential. But we must also do our bit too, and that’s why All Together Alleys has been such a fantastic scheme to work on - local residents taking control of their own neighbourhood, working with their MP, supported by local businesses and organisations to make a positive and lasting change. Thank you everyone.