THE LIVES of people in Basingstoke should be improved by a new force for change which is to have its public unveiling this week.

It may, as its leader admits, have a boring name, but the Local Strategic Partnership aims to be an exciting group of organisations - and it has already drawn up a Community Strategy blueprint for the borough.

Schemes already under way include a trust which co-ordinates bids for specialist school status, the introduction of community beat officer cycle patrols and an award scheme for newsagents who are more responsible about who they sell tobacco to.

The organisations involved in the LSP include Basingstoke Learning Consortium, local NHS and voluntary groups, parish councils and the Local Business Partnership.

The chairman of the LSP is Stephen Sheedy, principal of Queen Mary's College, Basingstoke. He told The Gazette: "This aims to deliver real things for people which individual agencies could not achieve on their own - things that could only be done by partnership. In particular, it aims to help people who are vulnerable or disadvantaged or falling between two stools.

"Agencies in the public sector have been fragmented and the chances of falling between them have increased.

"If we don't achieve anything we might as well pack up and go home. The aim is to make sure not one section of the community misses out."

Mr Sheedy explained the context in which the LSP will work. He said: "There are 11 LSPs in Hampshire, including one for the whole county. But Hampshire itself is such a big area, so, in Basingstoke, we have a partnership between the county and the borough, the public and the private sectors. We have had enormous support for it.

"We started with a steering group which worked on a community strategy, then established the partnership with 27 people sitting on the board. But that will change, depending on the project we are tackling."

The Basingstoke and Deane scheme differs from most in not having a councillor in the chairman's seat, which Mr Sheedy said had certain advantages.

He said: "I am neutral and can be clearly seen as such. But we have not wrested anything from the borough council."

He said the Government Office of the South East (GOSE) is following the progress of the Basingstoke and Deane LSP very closely and Hampshire County Council has been touting the scheme as a model when dealing with the European Union.

The LSP is now in the process of appointing a manager to produce specific projects.

Mr Sheedy said £800million is available nationally for neighbourhood renewal strategy, which the LSP could have a part of. But he said, for the present, the LSP will use existing funds from housing, education, police and transport in a more effective way.

He added: "We hope sooner, rather than later, to draw funds down from GOSE and the South East England Development Agency.

"The more effective you are seen as a partnership, the more likely you are to get monies - and these monies are huge."