The Pan ward, which I have had the honour to represent since 2005, was known for many years for being the most deprived part of the Island as successive IW (County) Councils and 18 years of Tory government up to 1997 neglected this community.
Consequently when the current Labour government was looking to undertake community renewal pathfinders back in 2002/03, Pan was fortunate enough to be awarded a £2 million government grant over seven years from 2005. This money established PNP, helped establish two new community groups - first PanCan and now the successful Pan Together - and helped to improve Pan over the last four years in so many ways. So much so that 88% of residents said they were happy living in Pan in the most recent official survey, and 41% thought the area had improved over the previous 3 years.
As the local IW and parish councillor it has been an absolute pleasure to represent the area over the last 4 years as there is so much good being undertaken by PNP and the community, and Pan is regularly remarked upon by other Islanders as a much improved neighbourhood.
Therefore, I was quite sad at a recent Newport Parish Council meeting when the response of one parish councillor (who is also a Tory IW Councillor elswhere in Newport) to a request for a parish donation to a local community event was to remark that "Pan's had enough money over recent years" and then voted against it. The proposal was for just £200 and the vast majority supported it.
This highlighted the danger for Pan in the future if we still have this Tory Council at County Hall. This simmering resentment at the good fortune Pan has had over the last 4 years will come to a boil and when the government grant runs out in March 2012 we could be back to being neglected again. Hopefully it won't come to that and the new Newport East ward, of which Pan will be a part from June, will continue to have an IW councillor who believes there is still some way to go after the years of neglect prior to 1997.
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I was the chairman of Medina Housing Association from 1991 to 1995; we owned many of the houses on Pan. My board and I did our best to channel all the investment we could into estates all over the island that had been neglected and run down for years by borough (in those days) and county councils. Pan, East Cowes, parts of Cowes, had been starved of all other investment and left to rot. Unemployment was rife, and when you couple that with the low wage rates on the island, a lot of people were caught in the poverty trap: ie, couldn't find a good job, couldn't afford to take a poorly paid one.
These areas, including Pan, deserve every penny they can get; the suggestion that any of them have "had enough money over recent years" completely ignores the fact that they had nothing or next to nothing throughout the years before. Medina HA has made great strides, with local people, in improving the environment and people's feelings of belonging to their estates. But these improvements can only be sustained if there is an effort across the board to keep them up. What the HELL is Newport Parish Council for if not to support an area like Pan, and encourage people to take a real interest and part in their communities? Pan is entitled to this money, because of the efforts it has made to transform an area which always had a worse reputation than it deserved, and has done so much to show what can be done when people work together with just a little encouragement.
I don't know who this councillor was - but I suggest you take him or her for a tour of Pan and see how such damn-fool remarks go down with the people there. Is this the general Tory view? If it is, it's amazing to me that they have the gall to show their faces in places like Pan, for which they intend to do no more than talk about weaning locals off the booze and fags. The know, or they should do, if they've been listening, that the Director of Public Health has pointed to the health problems and lower life expectancy that exist in our most deprived communities. Now, when locals try to help themselves, they're told they've "had enough". I'm sorry to bang on about this and hog the blog again, but it makes me sick.
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