The £5 million North West Coalfield Communities Regeneration Programme (NWCCRP) has received a glowing report following a recent ‘health check’ by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA).

The NWCCRP, which aims to regenerate former mining communities in eight northwest local authority areas, is managed by Wigan Council on behalf of the NWDA.

The 'health check' is the second to be undertaken on the funding programme and was conducted to review progress since the last visit in November 2005. During the visit all papers, procedures and systems were examined. They were all declared "excellent" and confirmed that the programme runs extremely efficiently.


Cllr Terry O’Neill, Chair of the NWCCRP Board and local councillor for Warrington Borough Council, said: "The Board are extremely pleased with the results of the recent health check and the comments made by the NWDA.

"Managing a programme on behalf of eight local authorities could be a potentially problematic task. However, due to the good relationship between the authorities and Wigan’s excellent programme management, the NWCCRP is proving to be a great success."

Damien Bourke, Policy and Partnerships Manager for Greater Manchester at the NWDA, said: "The programme was created to regenerate coalfield areas and to ensure their future prosperity, which will in turn drive forward the regional economy.

"It has a strong focus on addressing deprivation and tackling the economic, environmental and social issues in coalfield communities. The outcome of the NWDA health check really is an excellent result and is a testament to the tremendous work which is going into delivering these important goals."

This is the only scheme of its kind in the country and has been highly successful. The sharing of ideas by the different local authorities involved has been one of the major plus points of the programme.

(JM)