Lottery funding surgeries fully booked - more to follow

Funding for community projects in Barrow

Barrow Island Big Local Trust - News update

Barrow Island has been allocated £1m by the Big Lottery. This update will tell you what we’ve done, where we are now and what we are hoping to do next.

What we’ve done• We wrote to every household on Barrow Island in May to tell you about the £1m.
• We had a drop in on 9th June to get suggestions from the community
• We had a Streetsafe where people were asked for their views
• We have had feedback from Barrow Island young people in primary and secondary schools

Where are we now?We have had a series of meetings with Barrow Island residents to review all the suggestions and comments.
From all the comments to date, your community priorities appear to be;
• a community centre for all age groups including activities for young people

• an outdoor formal and informal sports and play

What next?Before we go any further, we need to report back to the Barrow Island community.
You are invited to an open meeting. This will be held at Dundalk St Centre, Dundalk Street, Thursday 3rd November, 6.30pmTea and coffee will be available from 6pm if you want an informal chat before the meeting. At the meeting, we will present a summary of what we have done and what you said.

We want you to:
• Confirm your priorities
• Agree a Steering Group to take matters forward

Contact us at any time

If you want to get involved, have some suggestions or have any questions, please get in touch. But not all at once!

Derek Brook, Nan Tait Centre, Abbey Road, LA14 1LG

Email: derek.brook@cumbria.gov.uk

Phone: 01229 407312

To keep up to date, 'like us' at  www.facebook.com/barrowislandbiglocaltrust  

Barrow Island Big Local Trust Meeting

Thursday 4 August 2011. The first meeting of the residents steering group was very successful and they are now planning their way forward! The next meeting is at Dundalk Street, Barrow Island at 6.30pm. New residents are welcome but please get in touch first so you can receive all the background information and reports. Ring Derek Brook on 01229 407575 or email: derek.brook@cumbria.gov.uk

How would people on Barrow Island spend £1million?

The people who attended the Big Lottery drop-in on 9th June would spend it mainly on supporting young people. Priorities are a new Community Centre for all ages and improved formal and informal places for Sport and Play.

Many residents mentioned the possibility of upgrading Cavendish Park and making it more of a community facility for people on Barrow Island.

The results strongly mirrored the recent Streetsafe carried out on the Island in May.

All the information collected in the Drop in and Streetsafe will be presented to a meeting on 7th July.

County Council officer Derek Brook is hopeful that a group of residents will come forward to help to take the lead on proposed projects.

“We have over 30 people who have expressed an interest in working with us on the Big Lottery Big Local Trust project. But we are happy to have more. With £1 million we can really make a difference but it will involve hard work. It’s really important that the process is led by the community and not people like me – we are here to offer advice and to help.”

The first meeting of the Big Lottery Residents group will be at Dundalk Street on Thursday 7 July at 6.30pm. Anyone wanting to attend should contact Derek Brook on 407312 or sign up on the Facebook page Barrow Island Big Local Trust.

The £1M Barrow Island Big Lottery Award

Come and have your say on Thursday 9 June 2011 at Dundalk Street Centre, Dundalk Street, Barrow Island from 2pm to 4pm and 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

BIG builds on 'Reaching Communities'

BIG is investing £75 million specifically for rural and urban community-use buildings through our flagship Reaching Communities programme. From early December, voluntary and community sector organisations and parish and town councils across England will be able to apply for capital funding of between £100,000 to £500,000.

In the North West we have a very diverse geography with 80% being rural but with a number of significant urban areas where the majority of the population live and work. Whatever the location we know that community buildings play an important role in the lives of people. They can provide access to a range of community activities which enhance community cohesion.

The funding will be available for all types of multi-purpose buildings used by communities including memorial halls, community centres and village halls. The funding stream has been designed with a view to transforming current buildings into community buildings which can offer a wide range of activities benefitting a wide range of citizens.

We know that £75million isn’t enough to fund every community building in the country. The funding will be targeted at those most in need. We have used the Index of Multiple Deprivation to identify these areas. However, we recognise that a single approach to deprivation could ‘miss’ rural deprivation.

We have therefore weighted the targeting so that half of the most deprived isolated rural communities are eligible, compared to 15% of the most deprived urban areas.

We have developed a postcode checker on our website so that applicants can check whether their building is in one of the eligible areas. This, and further information about how to apply for funding will be available on the website from December.

For further details on the programme visit the Big Lottery Fund website here.