Remember the ‘Communities First’ board in Shotton?

A couple of weeks ago we posted an article about the Communities First notice board in Higher Shotton.

Residents got in touch with us to vent a bit of anger over the poor state of the board, many feel the ‘community’ is simply being let down by the whole ‘Communities First‘ project, and the lack of attention to the noticeboard mirrored the attitude being shown to Higher Shotton by the ‘flagship program’

Over the past few months the board looked like it had been abandoned, no relevant information or posters had been updated or displayed, one tatty old Shotton council meeting notice was pretty much all that remained within the display case.

The board was nearly destroyed after being vandalised on numerous occasions during the summer,not helped by the fact it was empty.

The £1,500 ‘vandal proof’ board purchased and maintained by Communities First is supposed to be a community focal point, where up to date information about activities, courses and projects the Welsh Government program were offering to local residents.

Great news, the doors are back on!

The photograph above shows the doors are not secure and is an open invitation sadly, to be vandalised again.

We asked Flintshire County Council for their view on the upkeep of the board, given they are responsible for delivering ‘Communities First’ programme to the residents of Higher Shotton.

A spokesperson said:

“The notice board is used by various organisations, the police have a key to update information and Communities First hold a key.

“It is regularly updated with information from Communities First.

“It has been brought to the Council’s attention that the lock is faulty and up to now staff have made every effort to make sure that the notice board is always secure.

“A request has been issued to the Council’s repair team to fix the lock and panels due to recent vandalism.”

We were keen to explore a little further the claim “It is regularly updated with information from Communities First” bear in mind there is NO information being displayed currently, and there has been very little displayed in months.

So, we took a trip the ‘Communities First’ HQ about a 7 minute walk away from the Higher Shotton noticeboard- at the Queensferry campus.

This is the glossy face of the multi million pound program, the bit that ends up in the newspapers.

Lots of community ‘communication’ here, all looks great for visiting ‘dignitaries’ from the Welsh Government for example.

One doubts they get to see Higher Shotton’s equivalent notice board, yep the tatty empty one above!

More lovely posters, these are for community drop in clubs, credit unions, foodbank information, enterprise club posters, jobs for 16 -24 year year olds, you name it, its here, yet non of these are displayed on the notice board in Higher Shotton.

Look theres even more, infact there are another 3 pictures like this one full of posters and signs and yes ‘community news’

The burning question still remains, why is the ‘community’ of Higher Shotton, the very one Communities First is there to support being completely ignored? 

We think we know the answer! watch this space….