This website was developed as part of Birmingham City Council's Community Asset Transfer Development Programme 2009-10 which was funded by AWM. Here you can find the story of our two pilot projects and pick up general lessons learnt on asset transfer as well as more up to date information on our new Community Asset Transfer Protocol.
Interview at the Norton hall open day on July 11th 2010, Stevie Prior is the Norton Hall director who’s been involved in much of the negotiation over Community Asset Transfer. Here’s a sumary of her thoughts..
“Delighted to have got to this stage, it’s been an “interesting process” and very useful “learning curve”
there has to be a good relationship with city council officers
there is a tremendous amount of work involved and you have to allow for that
some elements – like legal aspect and dealing with the council in new ways gets “extremely serious and at times quite stressful”
I think we’ve emerged a more robust organisation
it’s enabled us to progress, which is what it was partly about anyway.
there is a need for council officers to understand a little more about community development
Karen Cheney has been the co-ordinator of the Community Asset Transfer Development Programme as part of her job as Senior Manager - Community Empowerment Projects Lead in the Neighbourhood and Communities Team of Birmingham City Council – Constituency Services. Below she talks very clearly about what the programme has achieved (more…)
Iftikar Karim has been involved with Asset Transfer since 2002. As a board member of Norton Hall Children and Family Centre he has helped the organisation navigate taking on a 50 year lease of their building from Birmingham City Council and then undergo a £250,00 renovation.
Here he talks about the lessons he has learnt and the advice he would give to other community groups and local authorities:
What are the benefits of Community Asset Transfer?
It is a great opportunity to empower community (more…)
The Community Asset Transfer programme has helped Norton Hall focus on it’s future. When the organisation first looked for funding it was for a more ambitious plan to change much of the building.
Some parts of that plan had to be shelved, but since building work began the organisation has been looking for ways to follow through on all the work. Here Suzanne Knipe talks about what else is now planned.
It’s not all smooth going with building work. Suzanne Knipe found that the builders had left their access door unlocked – the one that has to stay secure.
