| Weir Community Partnership (WCP), a group
of Weir residents have been working towards their vision
of building a community centre in the village for over four
years. This growing village is two miles outside Bacup town
centre and is surrounded by open moorland. Picturesque as
this is, if you are lucky you can watch the deer frolicking
on nearby hills, it is sadly lacking in the basic amenities.
The village only has one small shop and two pubs! With limited
public transport and no buses on Sunday’s the resident
were feeling increasingly cut off. Older people are house
bound and young people have difficulty getting to places
of entertainment. |
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Although there have been new housing
developments in recent years bringing affluence to the area
it has contributed to the newcomers failing to identify with
the spirit of the village, not surprising because it has
no heart!
WCP’s vision was for a new centre on the foundations of the old church,
pulled down when it went into decay. The centre would offer a venue for community
meetings, training, youth club and children’s facilities, church meetings
and a place to hold your party! The Weir Baptist Church has freely donated
the land that housed the former church to the project. However the budget
was over £600,000 and a donation from the Church and local fundraising
still left a huge amount to find. |
| In the summer of 2005 the group entered their
project into the WRG Village Hall & Community Centre
Challenge 2005, run by Waste Recycling Environmental Ltd,
owners of the nearby Deerplay Quarry. PEER had supported
this project from the beginning and contributed to developing
a Business Plan and supporting information ready for the
presentation. |
Just before Christmas they heard they were
in the final five out of 90 UK projects. As a finalist they
were guaranteed an award of at least £125,000 with
the opportunity to double this to a total grant of £250,000.
The Doals bid was the only one entered into the competition
from the whole of Lancashire. To secure the £250,000
each group had to make a presentation to a judging panel
on 14th March 2006 at the House of Commons. The following
May the group returned for the final announcement held at
the House of Commons.
WCP is delighted to announce that they won. After the celebrations the hard
work started!
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The timing of the award was crucial to obtaining further
funding from the Bacup & Stacksteads SRB Challenge
Fund, which was in its final year. Particular thanks go
to the Bacup & Stacksteads Community Partnership Board
and Rossendale Borough Council who pulled out all the stops
to make this project possible.
Long negotiations with the
local Council and Lancashire County Council regarding planning
permission (which
we had already sorted but new staff insisted on starting
again) and the requirements for extra parking spaces
and
traffic
restrictions dragged on and on and on…Eventually
however, after members of the community put in vast
amounts of time
to meet every demand the work finally started. The
support of Waste Recycling Environmental Ltd has been
invaluable
in getting us to this stage.
|
 |
The Doals Centre is due to be
completed by February 2008. PEER and REAL are
working with WCP to develop a plan for its long term sustainability.
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