§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what initiatives embarked upon since May 1997 have benefited Pendle; and if he will make a statement. [149911]
§ Mr. Chris SmithA number of initiatives embarked upon since May 1997 have benefited Pendle.
35 lottery awards have been made totalling £1,716,879 from the national lottery since 2 May 1997. This includes one award from the millennium festival totalling £25,000.
In addition, the new opportunities fund cancer care programme awarded £220,605 to the hospice care for Burnley and Pendle—this project will build on current services for cancer patients by providing a 24-hour homecare service. It aims to give carers in Burnley and Pendle support during the night. The fund's out of school hours child-care programme has awarded £27,000 to the Lakeview children's nursery—this grant will create 30 before and 30 after-school places, creating a total of 60 places for children aged 5—14 in a rural area of Lancashire. Ten primary schools within a five-mile radius will benefit from the scheme.
Seventeen millennium award winners have been identified from Pendle and between them they have received grants totalling £25,218.
English Heritage grants offered since 1 May 1997 for the Pendle constituency are:
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£000 Heritage Economic Regeneration Schemes Round 1 Barrowford/Higherford 40 Primet Bridge 40 Round 2 St Mary's Nelson 68 Lancashire Library Authority (which includes Pendle libraries) was part of a consortium which received an award of £215,992 from the DCMS/Wolfson public libraries challenge fund's 2000–01 programme to support reader development work in libraries. There were 18 partners in the consortium—North West Libraries Book Promotion Partnership—and it is not possible to say precisely what proportion of funding is being spent in the Pendle constituency.
Creative industries development is also featuring in the borough championed by North West Heritage Trust, based in Barrowford, who have secured ERDF Objective 2 funds to investigate the feasibility of creating artists studios, an exhibition outlet and support services within the Higherford Mill development. This is a partnership venture together with North West Arts Board and Lancashire county council arts unit. With the SRB programme based in Brierfield there is a further example of cross agency work with a cultural development worker facilitating a programme of arts work managed by the borough, the local community and the Mid Pennine Arts development agency. This programme has recently been awarded national new audiences scheme money, one of only two to the north-west to explore evaluation methods around the arts and social inclusion.
There are of course other initiatives in the wider context of Lancashire that may benefit Pendle. These are:
Under the Space for Sport and the Arts (SSA scheme), a £130 million capital programme made up of £75 million from the Capital Modernisation Fund and £55 million from Sport England, the Arts Council of England and the 3rd Round of the New Opportunities Fund, Lancashire LEA has been allocated £1.75 million towards providing improved facilities for sport and arts in primary schools which can also be used by the wider community.Liverpool, Manchester, Cumbria, Knowsley, Salford, Rochdale, Trafford, Wirral, St. Helens and Blackburn with Darwen LEAs have also been allocated SSA funding which means a potential inward investment of up to £22 million in the North West region for sports and arts facilities in primary schools under this programme.Pendle constituents will benefit from equipment to be purchased by the new opportunities fund cancer programme. Across the whole of the north-west NHS Region over £10 million will fund nine linear accelerators; four MRI scanners, five trailers for breast screening equipment; six ultrasound machines for breast screening and 27 pieces of x-ray breast screening equipment.The North West Arts Board has received an additional £493,877 from the Arts Council this year to support arts and cultural activity across the region.Information on the national lottery is in accordance with the information supplied to the Department by the lottery distributors for the national lottery awards database.