Lottery strengthens core of village life in East of England

Area:

East of England

Programme:

Community Buildings

Release date:

30 3 2009

The Big Lottery Fund is helping village life in the East of England to weather the economic downturn with the announcement that five villages in the region will be funded to revive village halls and centres at the heart of the communities.

Three projects in Norfolk, one in Suffolk and one in Cambridgeshire are sharing in almost £2million from the Big Lottery Fund.

Sara Betsworth, Big Lottery Fund Head of the East of England region said: “Voluntary and community organisations in particular are facing challenging times because of the economic downturn. These grants will bring much needed improvements and will support the long-term sustainability of the facilities and of the communities that use them.”

The Thuxton and Garvestone Institute near Norwich has received £177,986 to demolish the existing village hall, which dates back to the 1920s, and replace it with a new sub-dividable hall twice as large as the old one. The new building will incorporate activities such as badminton, indoor football, local food market events for local producers and a dedicated post office area.

Roberta Summerfield, Sercretary at the Thuxton and Garvestone Institute, said: "We are thrilled to receive this funding from the Big Lottery Fund. It is a tremendous boost to the project and will go a long way in enhancing the local community. The problem with the old hall is that there's not enough facilities there for it to be hired out. Now we'll be able to provide a really good facility for Thuxton and Garvestone and neighbouring villages to use. It's going to be fantastic."

The Great Dunham Amenities Committee in King’s Lynn is also sharing in today’s grants. Their £345,345 award will go towards building a brand new community building which will provide a venue for residents of all ages to engage in a variety of recreational, educational and social activities.

Keith Mitchell, Project Coordinator at the Great Dunham Amenities Committee, said: "This is a fantastic moment for us because without this award we would lose the space for our local groups and services.

“Our current hall is an outdated prefabricated building from the late 1960s and there's no way we could have built on to it or refurbished it. But now with the funding we'll be able to provide a brand new venue for the village. This grant is the culmination of five years work with a great number of contributors, and a lot of people across Norfolk and in the local community have made this possible."

Villagers in Hopton-On-Sea will now have a new Village Hall Complex to look forward to after securing a grant of £484,842. The complex will be a modern building encompassing two halls – a larger one accommodating 150 people and a smaller one for up to 48 people – as well as kitchen, office, storage room and improved parking facilities.

Mike Butcher, Chairman of the Village Hall Committee said: “I am delighted that the hard work of the committee has been rewarded with such brilliant news from the Big Lottery Fund. It will be great to have a wonderful new environmentally friendly building to cater for the needs of the people in Hopton and the wider community.”

All of today’s awards for the East of England are as follows:

Further Information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone: 0845 6021 659

Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to Editors

• Community Buildings is dedicated to investing in buildings that give communities a chance to improve their quality of life and meet local needs, by offering a range of activities and services open to a broad range of people.
• Up to £50 million is being distributed across England over three years with grants of £50,000 to £500,000 available.
• The programme opened for applications in June 2006. 200 applicants were invited to submit stage 2 applications and development funding was awarded to some projects.
• The programme is now closed for applications
• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since June 2004. The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £22 billion has now been raised and more than 300,500 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.

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