Blue Box Belper is devastated to announce that after years of hard work we are unable to go ahead with our plans to construct a brand new community centre on the Parks Estate in Belper. Despite being told that it would be a simple process to finalise a lease agreement with support previously stated by local councils, we have been unable to secure a suitable lease agreement for the land in the required timeframe. The delays we’ve faced, due to the indecision by the Town Council, have resulted in us now losing out on £65,000 worth of pledged funds. In addition, a new condition added late in the process, will limit our ability to secure further funding. With project costs also rising due to the delays caused by the Town Council, we are simply unable to proceed.
This time last year we were celebrating, having secured a pledged £499,950 from the National Lottery Community Fund, which alongside a further £80,000 pledged from other funders, and over £75,000 raised over the last few years through community fundraising and funding applications, we were ready to proceed with the construction of our new community centre. The Planning Permission was in place, the majority of funds secured, and a preferred contractor lined up and ready to go.
This was a community-led project, where a group of residents came together and were determined to build a new community centre after fire damage resulted in the demolition of the original Blue Box building in 2015. Early on in the process it became clear that Amber Valley Borough Council required a guarantor, for us to secure a lease agreement with them for the land, in the unlikely event that Blue Box Belper were to cease operating as a charity. The need for this was questioned, but unprompted, Belper Town Council offered to be that guarantor, voting unanimously on the matter in 2017, and so the project continued.
The Town Council were clear in their support of the project, drafting a guarantor agreement and investing £25,000 in the pre-construction costs to enable us to apply to the National Lottery Community Fund for just under half a million pounds. The National Lottery Community Fund application was an incredibly rigorous process involving several rounds of applications, in-depth questioning and site visits to scrutinise the viability of the project and our ability to deliver it.
Securing the grant from the National Lottery Community Fund, along with successful applications to other funders prompted Amber Valley Borough Council to complete the draft lease agreement. By the end of January 2024 most stakeholders (Blue Box Belper, Amber Valley Borough Council and the National Lottery Community Fund) had agreed to the draft lease agreement, but Belper Town Council began to raise concerns about their role as guarantor.
Indeed, a series of questions and concerns have been raised by the Town Council over the past 11 months. Every time questions have been asked, we have answered them, only to wait for weeks at a time, to then be presented with further questions. We cannot understand why these questions were not raised at the time that the Town Council agreed, in principle, to become the guarantor, or indeed why they weren’t at least raised earlier this year. We, alongside the National Lottery Community Fund, have seen this as an opportunity to work in partnership and find a resolution, but instead we have been frozen out of Town Council meetings where Blue Box is discussed privately (due to legal privilege on their solicitor’s advice).
Throughout the process we have been abundantly clear on the very real risk of pledged funds being lost if an agreement cannot be found, and unfortunately we believe we have now reached that stage. A combination of the rise in construction costs (due to the delays), coupled with the deadlines to claim £65,000 worth of pledged funding ending in 2024 (which requires a signed lease agreement), mean that it is simply too late to make this project happen.
The final nail in the coffin was the Town Council’s decision at Full Council meeting on 7th November 2024, to agree to be the guarantor, only if a number of additional conditions are met. Finalising the wording around these will cause further delays, as additional changes may need to be made through the solicitors, meaning a signed lease will not be ready in time to claim the £65,000 of pledged funds. A second condition actually stops us applying to the National Lottery Community Fund for a further 10% uplift (£50,000), which is now required given the increasing costs and the imminent loss of the pledged grants. Given the lateness of a decision by the Town Council and the new round of conditions attached to their support, it ultimately leaves the project unachievable.
It is notable that during the Town Council vote on 7th November, a town councillor, who has been very supportive of Blue Box Belper and the construction project, decided to vote against the final motion, which included the additional conditions. The action taken by that supportive councillor highlights that the final deal offered by the Town Council, and how the conditions they attached to their support were too restrictive and have ultimately led to the project becoming unattainable.
To be clear, we would not have gone ahead with raising the funds, developing the plans and galvanising the support of a community, without the backing from Belper Town Council as a guarantor and the £25,000 grant for pre-construction costs. Up until this last 12 months we believed the Town Council to be fully supportive of our vision and the project, but recent actions and decisions have shown that we no longer have their full support.
As a charity, we have done everything that has been required by the local authorities to see this vision become a reality. We honestly feel let down by both councils, and in particular by the Town Council. It is extremely disappointing that as it stands over £580,000 of external funding, which we have worked so hard to secure, and which could have transformed our community, has been lost.
Whilst we want to acknowledge the effort and support of some town councillors who have worked hard to find a solution, this ultimately has to be seen as a collective failure of local government. It is an example of local Councils actively choosing not to support dedicated and skilled members of a community group to deliver on a project, who have also secured the support of a national and publicly funded grant giving organisation. Both the Town Council and the Borough Council have shown an unwillingness to commit to one day running the community centre, in the unlikely scenario that Blue Box Belper, a well-established and well-structured charity, failed as a charity.
There seems to be a fear amongst the town councillors that if the Blue Box Belper fails the National Lottery will seek to claw back the project funds, when in reality the National Lottery Community Fund have been clear that they want to work with Blue Box Belper and the Town Council to positively impact Belper for the long term, whilst safe-guarding the public’s investment.
When we shared the news with the National Lottery Community Fund, they stated that “the Fund has worked with a very large number of local authorities to enable projects of varying sizes to succeed over the last 30 years and, as you rightly point out, it would take all steps necessary to support the projects it funds. Clawback of grant funding is not common but obviously must be an option available to the Fund where the basic objectives of the project have not been delivered for the minimum period of time agreed, as these are public funds.”
We are left feeling incredibly sad, disappointed and angry, not simply because of the time and energy we have put into the project on the basis of the council’s agreed support, but also for our local community which will now miss out on much needed investment.
Despite all this, we have over the last 8 years built something more than bricks and mortar. We’ve built a strong community of local people, united around a vision for a thriving community hub on the Parks Estate. Through our regular activities and fundraising initiatives we’ve seen friendships develop, skills grown, and many lives enriched.
Blue Box Belper are committed to finding an alternative solution, to ensure we can continue to build upon the impact we are having. Indeed, we are currently trialling running the old Children’s Centre on Alder Road. When we began the process of replacing the original Blue Box building, the Children’s Centre was still a council run Sure Start Centre. It has recently become empty and we are exploring its longer term availability.
Maybe, with some investment the Alder Road Centre can become the much-needed community hub on the Parks Estate. We will speak with those funders and major donors that have already given their money to our construction project, to explore how those funds that have been raised can be used to continue to benefit our community, or hopefully still be used to secure and/or develop a community centre, that can be a hub within the Parks Estate and Belper more widely.
Thank you to everyone who has donated or spoken out in support of Blue Box Belper. We appreciate you all.
