Report on Big Local activities for June 2023

Big Local North Cleethorpes: June 2023 activity update

This is the June 2023 edition of our monthly updates on what Big Local North Cleethorpes has been up to. Many projects and activities are ongoing, but some updates are new this month and the latest ones are covered in this summary.

If you are interested in more information or want to follow up on anything outlined below, please contact us at Big Local North Cleethorpes: hello@biglocalnorthcleethorpes.org.uk or karl@vanel.org.uk or 01472 897337 or check the website for more information: (www.biglocalnorthcleethorpes.org.uk)

Arts, Leisure, Culture and Heritage

Various arts & crafts and modelling groups continue to meet weekly in the Shed at 82.

Discussions continue between We Are Fish / Lyns Powles and Transpennine Express about leasing the old Cycle Hub building on the station to be brought into use as a community/youth arts gallery/space.  Once the lease has been agreed the groups will be able to begin using the space in the next couple of months.

Planning is underway for a North Cleethorpes Fringe festival once again to be delivered as part of the Urban Arts Festival run by Lyns Powles.  The Festival will take place over the weekend of 19th/20th August and whilst the main event will take place around the Leisure Centre, the Fringe event funded by Big Local will take place along North Prom and at venues nearby. Match funding has been applied for via the PCC.

One more booking for the Thorpe Park Holiday Home came in this month meaning a one more local family benefitted from this Big Local supported offer.

Supporting Young People and Families

Thanks to effort from Sidney Sussex Ward Councillors, DN35 children from Reynolds Academy all received ‘panda alarms’ this month from the stock funded by Big Local and stock funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner beyond the BL target area.

Funding from the Hangout will be provided to Daubney Street Neighbourhood Watch Group to allow them to run some events during the summer for the children in their street. An extra Trin DJ session was funded via the Hangout in June for DN35 kids.

The “Little Green Influencers” group at Reynolds Family Hub continues to run very well and is engaging children under 5 and their families in their green space at the Hub.

Families experiencing hardship in our North Cleethorpes target area have continued to benefit from small grants and gift cards to help with food purchases, utility bills, access to the internet, IT equipment and other ad hoc needs on a case by case basis.

Big Local has been supporting young people from the area to attend Ghetto Park to keep active. Ghetto Park managed to use some of this match funding to purchase t-shirts for all the children who were then able to take part in the Carnival procession as part of the recent Armed Forces Day. Over 110 children took part!

The Old Clee foodbank was supported with a £1000 donation in June to ensure they could continue to meet DN35 area residents’ demand from 40 individuals per week.

Supporting Older People

Scams talks (funded by FraudWatch) have been delivered in June to two local social groups and more talks are scheduled during July which will help provide scams advice to older people in our area. The police team took leaflets to Armed Forces Day event.

The offer of personal/household security equipment funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner has now ended, but dozens more households in North Cleethorpes received items through the scheme during June. We’ll continue to take referrals from Police and other partners over the summer and will provide items where and when our bits of funding allow. Further substantial funding has been requested which could allow us to restart this full service later in the year. It was promoted at Armed Forces Day.

Copies of the latest KOPS newsletter can still be picked up from 82. There is a new website www.keepingolderpeoplesafe.com coming online which will be providing much more useful information which can also benefit North Cleethorpes residents.

A new “Stay Safe” guide has now been published using Safer Streets East Marsh funding. This is a general NEL wide guide and copies will be available from 82 Grimsby Road for local residents. Copies are also going to be available online at www.staysafenel.com along with an audio version.

A grant application was made on behalf of Beacon Hill allotments which would allow us to invest in a new, experimental security system which could be installed at the allotments to help tackle crime on the site. We’ll know whether the grant has been agreed later in August.

Environmental

The Community Allotments on Carr Lane led by We Are Fish are continuing to engage residents with the environment. Community Feasts are being held every Monday (4-6pm) and are open to other allotment users and to others wanting to join in.

The new shed for the Community Allotments at Carr Lane has now been delivered and erected and is available for use.

All four DN35 area Green Influencers groups continue to work amazingly well. The after-school ECO group at Beacon Academy continues to be very active on Thursday afternoons with a clear focus on the plastics free agenda and engaging in area wide events/trips – next event being an Eco Fayre at St Francis Church on 8thJuly. A new Green Influencers lunch club continued during June at St Peter’s Avenue Primary.

Community and Partnership working

The Neighbourhood Policing Team were able to distribute Big Local North Cleethorpes newsletters at the recent Armed Forces Day event.

We have secured match funding via the UK shared prosperity fund to support our ‘cost of living’ service to keep helping DN35 residents who ‘drop-in’ for an informal chat. It will enable us to fund staff time to provide this service and re-decorate the back meeting area to make it more ‘visitor-friendly’ and welcoming as a meeting space. The meeting spaces at 82 have been rearranged during June and new furniture will be arriving in July funded by a UK shared prosperity fund project.

Our ‘cost of living’ activities will enable us to continue to distribute small grants and gift cards to people in need and refer them to the later life partnership, citizens’ advice and credit union for support with financial hardship. We can also help with community problem solving and link them to our councillor and police drop-in sessions at the hub.

The future of Sidney Sussex Rec Pavilion as a community space is currently uncertain after the passing of Steve Pygott. Big Local is supporting local councillors, residents and groups with exploring options for its future sustainability and use of the building are being discussed at a meeting to be held on 11th July in the BLNC community hub.

The latest printed newsletter for Big Local North Cleethorpes is still being distributed. Please pick up copies from 82 Grimsby Road if you are able to help us distribute them. The next edition is due out in July. Please let us know if you can write an article.

The above work with local people will also support our proposed legacy option to make every effort over the next 18 months to make the building useful, vibrant and sustainable for future use by DN35 residents beyond the end of the Big Local North Cleethorpes programme into the 2025/2026 financial year.