We’re absolutely delighted to share that we have secured a £499,950 grant from the National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF), towards the cost of constructing our new Community Centre on the Parks Estate. Alongside funds from Derbyshire County Council (£56,000), Belper Town Council (£27,000), Garfield Weston Foundation (£15,000), Bernard Sunley Foundation (£15,000), Open Gate Trust (£9,000), WF Southall Trust (£3,000), as well as £4,000 from local businesses including Tesco, Morrisons and Lubrizol, will be enough to see the project start. We are extremely grateful to all the funders that have chosen to help make this project a reality, and we couldn’t have achieved this incredible milestone without the help of a range of contributors.
It is, however, the support and assistance from local community groups and Belper residents that has been most inspiring, with generous individuals and community groups making cash donations and volunteers organising a variety of fundraising activities such as quiz nights, sponsored challenges, an urban fell race, stalls at events, community calendars, and raffles, which collectively have raised nearly £40,000 so far.
The proposed new Blue Box Community Centre and the Original Blue Box Building
The next step is to finalise the lease agreement for the land with Amber Valley Borough Council. Once this is agreed, then a proportion of the pledged funds will be released, and we can begin to schedule the timetable of construction with our preferred contractor. It has certainly been a challenging journey to reach this stage, as progress was first hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, by the economic downturn and high inflation costs. However, with the vast majority of the funds now in place, construction should now begin in 2024, with the final cost of the Community Centre budgeted to come in at just under £700,000. The new Community Centre will be a facility at the heart of our community, which will be a venue for Blue Box Belper’s current activities, such as a youth group, regular coffee mornings, a craft group and weekly chair-obics sessions, as well as becoming a hub for a whole range of new activities and volunteering opportunities for local people, improving wellbeing and building community cohesion.
To find out more about the National Lottery, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk
