Revamped community centre opens doors
Monday 14th of March 2016
Member story by Acis - A Gainsborough community centre has opened its doors once again after a £90,000 refurbishment
The former Park Springs Community Centre on Riseholme Road has been reborn as the Gainsborough Uphill Community Centre following the revamp.
An £82,000 grant from WREN and £9,000 grant from West Lindsey District Council has helped to transform the building into a purpose-built centre providing much-needed services to local residents of all ages – with many of the new activities being showcased on its launch day on Friday 26 February.
A further £4,230 grant from IGas funded the purchase of three lots of external play equipment to allow a new toddler group to start running from the centre.
Although owned by social housing provider Acis, the redevelopment has been led by a steering group made up of officials from West Lindsey District Council, Lincolnshire County Council, Lincoln College, Riverside Training, Sills & Betteridge solicitors, Acis, as well as four local residents.
The centre was previously not being used to its potential due to the building’s layout and activities on offer. Thanks to the redevelopment and further community engagement work, the centre will now play host to an array of different activities including employability training, yoga, youth performances, bingo, mental health services, smoothie making, knitting, sewing, table top sales, IT workshops, energy saving workshops, disability awareness sessions and dodgeball.
The on-site shop has also been transformed and is set to open in the coming months after a competitive tendering process. Lucy Picksley, Acis’ community engagement coordinator, said: “Residents said they wanted a better community centre – and that’s what we’ve given them. It wouldn’t have been possible without the leadership of the steering group behind this redevelopment. Their great leadership has brought residents’ vision to life.”
The centre’s new branding including its logo and ‘bringing communities together’ strapline were created by local schoolchildren who attended last year’s Firecracker initiative run by Acis in partnership with Lincolnshire Police.
WREN is a not-for-profit business that awards grants for community, conservation and heritage projects from funds donated by waste and resource management company FCC Environment through the Landfill Communities Fund.
Cheryl Raynor, WREN’s grant manager for Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, said: “We are delighted to have supported the Gainsborough Uphill Community Centre and pleased that our funding has helped to provide such a fantastic facility for the local community. WREN is always happy to consider grant applications for projects that make a difference to local communities and this project demonstrates the different local people can make.”
Cllr Owen Bierley, Chairman of the Prosperous Communities Committee at West Lindsey District Council, said: "The Council is delighted to support the development of the community centre and the benefits it will brings to local people in Gainsborough and the surrounding area.”
The centre is available for hire. To find out more, call 01427 611 666 or 01427 678 000. You can also keep up to date with all the activities over on the centre’s brand new Facebook page at www.facebook.com/GainsboroughUphillCommunityCentre.
Acis provides affordable housing across Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. For more information about Acis, visit www.acisgroup.co.uk
Ends
For more information, please contact Matt Needham on 07838 156 413 or email matt@mattneedhampr.co.uk
For more information about WREN funding contact Cheryl Raynor on 01623 755319, at cheryl.raynor@wren.org.uk or visit http://www.wren.org.uk/
Notes to Editors
- Acis Group is a dynamic and forward-thinking registered provider of affordable housing. Our vision is to create opportunities for people to have better lives through the provision of better homes and better services.
- We provide over 5,500 affordable homes across eleven local authority areas in Lincolnshire, South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
- Our homes are located in towns, cities and rural villages. They include high quality homes for affordable rent, low-cost home ownership schemes and sheltered accommodation.
- WREN is a not-for-profit business that awards grants for community, conservation and heritage projects from funds donated by FCC Environment through the Landfill Communities Fund. Since 1998, WREN has granted over £200m to more than 7,000 projects which benefit people living within 10 miles of a FCC Environment landfill site. For more information please visit www.wren.org.uk
- FCC Environment is the leading UK waste and resource management company and is part of a global group with a strong heritage in providing services for communities and business. Its vision is to be the environmental company of choice, delivering change for a sustainable future. It employs 2,400 people and operates more than 200 facilities across England, Scotland and Wales. FCC Environment donates the LCF tax credits that are generated by its operations to WREN, in order to add value to the environmental and social infrastructure of the communities around landfill sites. www.fccenvironment.co.uk
- The Landfill Communities Fund (LCF) is an innovative tax credit scheme enabling operators (LOs) to contribute money to organisations enrolled with ENTRUST as Environmental Bodies (EBs). EBs use this funding for a wide range of community and environmental projects in the vicinity of landfill sites. LOs are able to claim a credit (currently 5.7%) against their landfill tax liability for 90% of the contributions they make.Since its inception in 1996, over £1.4billion has been spent on more than 53,000 projects across the UK. For further information please visit www.entrust.org.uk or see HMRC’s general guide to landfill tax (https://www.gov.uk/business-tax/landfill-tax)
