“We’ve got to try and give an agenda of hope”

Glyn Griffiths is a former Kent County, Gillingham and Medway councillor who is about to retire from his day job. He isn't quite putting his feet up, though. He has been appointed chair of the board overseeing £20m of Pride in Place funding for Twydall. Steven met him at Avenue Tennis in Gillingham to discuss what the money could do for the area, working for the Coal Board, joining the Labour Party and helping to create Medway Council.

What is your official occupation?
In the context of this interview, I've recently been appointed chair of Pride in Place Twydall.
I've got a day job which I'm retiring from in 17 working days' time.

What's that?
I work as a project manager for a city insurance broker on acquisitions.

The role for the project we're talking about now, is that a paid role?
I understand there may be a small stipend attached to it, but I don't know any details on that, and that's not the reason I've sought to do it.

Do you have any additional roles, paid or unpaid?
No.

What is the project?
Pride in Place Twydall is part of a national scheme that recognises there are places across the country that have particularly suffered as a result of austerity and the cuts that have taken place since 2010.
Twydall is a great place, but it's creaking a bit as a result of those cuts and people are feeling it. The investment from the Pride in Place scheme will see £20 million over ten years invested into that area. That's got to be good.
It comes with obligations. At a time when everyone's feeling the pinch, there's a real obligation to ensure that any money spent is spent wisely. That's why the key element of this scheme is community engagement, to ensure that it's reflective of the community it's being delivered to.

And your role in that project is?
There was open competition for the position of chair of the community board. It's not being run by the council or the MP, although the council will provide support and the MP will be represented. Essentially, it is to have control over the spend.
I've been appointed to chair that board, and there will be local community representation. We're now going through the next stage of appointing board members. We've had a good number of applications, but we've not got to the stage of selecting yet.

If you haven't got the board in place, who selected you?
The selection panel that appointed me comprised the MP [Naushabah Khan], the council portfolio holder for economic development, [Cllr Harinder Mahil], one of the local councillors [Cllr Hazel Browne], the headteacher of Twydall Primary, and a council representative who was there to oversee that the process was sound.

When we talk about Medway, we think of five towns and a peninsula. Where does Twydall fit into that?
You wouldn't think that it could be so discrete, but when you consider it's bounded by the A2, a dual carriageway, and Ito Way, then running down to the river you have the railway line.
On the eastern end, it's a little bit porous as you go towards Cozenton Park, where the boundary has moved. More recently it's come back to what would have been regarded by the old council as Twydall Estate, which is Hawthorn Avenue.
But it is discrete. It hasn't got a railway station, although there was talk of having a stop there at one stage that never materialised. It's in the middle of things, but it's also quite separate.

There are plenty of places that have been let down by austerity. Why Twydall?
I think statistically you've got these building blocks that the government and councils look at in terms of deprivation and other elements. Twydall was identified, in the same way that Luton and Strood over by Darnley Road have been, as similarly in need of support.
When you look at it, I think by anyone's justification there is a reasonable basis for saying these places need a helping hand.

In this economy, what does £20 million actually get you?
Well, first of all, it's not £20 million. Particularly to start the engagement process, I'm really keen about some early wins. I think it's an iterative process. There's an element of being able to show that we've asked and we've listened, in order to build that community engagement and belief, and hopefully increasingly validate what that money is spent on.
If you're asking, “Have you got an agenda for how that money should all be spent?”, then I don't. I think it's incumbent on us, first of all, to ask the local community what's important to them, but also take note of some cautionary tales.
Buckmore Park, back in the days of New Labour, got a whole chunk of money, I think from the Lottery, to do up the Scout facility there, which was fantastic. My daughter was a Scout at the time, and we went there. It was brilliant.
But obviously no one had done a business plan in terms of what the revenue was going to be like. Eventually it was run into the ground because they weren't getting enough revenue to keep it going. I think it's now owned by some evangelical church.
I don't have a problem with evangelical churches, but it wasn't money well spent if ultimately it didn't achieve what it was seeking to do. It's going to be important to see that the money that is spent actually makes a difference. I think we will be rightly criticised if people said at the end of it, whether it's £200 grand, £2 million or £20 million, “Well, what was the point of that? That was our money that was taken as taxes, and you spent it on this!”
The fact it's concentrated in areas has got to be good, but we've got to spend it well. I don't want to announce any stuff early because we're still in setup, but we had a fun day recently down in Twydall, which was part of the initial community engagement where we were asking people what mattered to them. It was things like securing the parks, things for youths to do and clean pavements.
Once we've got the board together, we will need to ramp up that engagement and then start trying to say, “Okay, how can we get some early wins?”

How secure is that money? Is that money in an account? How confident are you?
I'm confident. We live in a cynical time, and that's why, in its own terms, whatever money is spent has to be spent wisely.
In my view, you can't allocate the money on the basis of, “We're going to do this in year one and spread it over four years and then it'll be done.” That wouldn't be sensible because, exactly for that reason, I've got great belief that the current government will secure that money, but it's not, as you say, sitting in a pot. It's going to become available each year.
What happens in three years’ time, or less if there's an election? If Labour doesn't win, would another party potentially cancel that programme? Maybe they could. That's why whatever's done has got to stand on its own legs.
But whatever we are able to do is a bonus, and I'm confident it's a good selling point in terms of why people should get excited about it.

When do you expect that first lump sum to become available?
In terms of spend, this year it's a couple of hundred grand in setting up costs. Next year, about £400,000 for investment, and then it starts ramping up to, I think, about £1.6 million and then over £2 million.
The bigger numbers are coming in years four onwards.

The money becomes the oil, but the crucial thing is trying to reinvigorate community engagement and community cohesiveness

What would you like to see come to Twydall?
I think an early win could be something like Beechings Rec, which is well used and there are a couple of football pitches on it. Despite anti-incursion measures, unofficial encampments have still managed to get on.
Similarly, just around the corner from where we're sitting, there is Vinall Park, which has had the same problems. I think people would like the fund to be used to secure those parks.
The council may well have some plans in that direction anyway, and I'd like to think that a small amount of money there could really enhance those efforts and make a good job of it. I think that would help to create a feedback loop of listening and acting on local demands.

What is the timescale to officially announce the full board?
I would hope that we will have made significant progress by the end of this month or the early weeks of October. I would like to see the board up and running by the end of October at the latest.

How can Twydall residents get in touch to contribute ideas?
We're still ramping that up. People are making contact, and we have been going out with Naushabah Khan MP, who has been doing work in that area already. One would expect us to have a presence to capture those great ideas.
That's what it's about, almost as much as the money. The money becomes the oil, but the crucial thing is trying to reinvigorate community engagement and community cohesiveness. It's trying to find things that can bring people together so that you've got greater ownership by the community of the area. That's not a by-product. That's absolutely front and central.
To some extent, it's the money's lubricating power that helps people to achieve it. After all those years of austerity and cuts, people are increasingly busy running busy lives. It's not surprising that they maybe have turned off in terms of what they think can be done in the local community.
We've got to try and turn that on its head and give an agenda of hope, because this is a great place, but there are still some negatives.