Report on Big Local activities for August 2023

Big Local North Cleethorpes: August 2023 activity update

This is the August 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

The Reclaim Urban Arts Festival took place over the weekend of 19th/20th August and was a great success. The festival was led by Lyns Powles, and this year would not have happened without the sponsorship by Big Local. Over the weekend the main activities were around the Leisure Centre, and the Big Local investment will bring additional arts support into North Cleethorpes. For example Paula has secure £3000 match funding from the PCC for more urban art workshops. Four local artists have produced commissioned artwork that depicts North Cleethorpes. We’ll soon be sharing these on our website and there will be exhibitions of this art in local community venues over the coming months. Also, a new piece of wall art is going to be finished soon in North Cleethorpes. Lyns is also starting urban art sessions with North Cleethorpes young people which will start during September 2023. Sessions are being scheduled soon for Carr Lane allotments and for Sidney Park. Watch our website for further updates and images from the festival soon. In the meantime, check out the Facebook page for the festival at: www.facebook.com/Cleethorpesurbanartfestival

Discussions are still ongoing with TransPennine Express about the old Cycle Hub building on Cleethorpes Station. The vision is still for We Are Fish and Lynsey Powles to take over the building as a community run, youth and arts venue. The lease is still under discussion and progress is slow, however this is still expected to open its doors in the coming months. This would be an excellent local arts venue if this can happen as planned.

The Holiday Home at Thorpe Park has now been sold. A good price was achieved taking into account upcoming costs and fees and balancing the state of the resale market. During its life with Big Local a good number of local families (12) have benefitted from affordable holidays that they would not have otherwise been able to have. But the long term sustainability of ownership was getting more difficult. The funds realised are already being reinvested for the long term sustainability of the community hub at 82 Grimsby Road.

Our crafts and arts groups continued to meet in the shed this month and the ancestry group meets in the front room and all are proving as popular as ever.

Supporting Young People and Families

Daubney Street NWG was given a small amount of funding from the Hangout to do some crafts and arts sessions with the kids in their street over the summer holidays.

Following on from the Urban Arts Festival, there will be a series of Graffiti Art sessions delivered in the Shed at 82 for local young people over the coming months.

The community feast events have been continuing at the Carr Lane allotments this month and have brought many local families together.

It’s still school holidays so the local Green Influencers’ groups have been closed. They will all re-start when the new term begins in September. Sam, Liz and Lauren have promoted the GI work at various community event over the summer holidays.

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.

Supporting Older People

Two more Fraudwatch scams talks were delivered to groups in Cleethorpes with a number of the residents coming from the North Cleethorpes area.

Big Local will be having a stand at the older people’s advice showcase day on 11th October at Cleethorpes Memorial Hall. All are welcome to join us on the day.

The Keeping Older People Safe (KOPS) initiative continues to circulate information and advice to older people across North Cleethorpes. The new website at www.keepingolderpeoplesafe.com is continuing to be developed and the latest KOPS newsletter can be downloaded from there.

Thanks to funding from the Safer Streets East Marsh programme, a new version of the “Stay Safe” guide has now been published and printed. This advice booklet first was created for Cleethorpes and has since developed more widely. The new version published July 2023 is relevant to all North East Lincolnshire. There is also now a website www.staysafenel.com where an electronic copy of the booklet can be downloaded. Printed copies can be picked up from Big Local offices if required.

The free offer of household and personal safety equipment has largely come to the end of its funding, but if residents in North Cleethorpes require items, then we still are able to supply a couple of items. This month a couple of residents have been referred to us by the Police and supported with equipment.

Environmental

Community Feasts (Monday afternoons) have continued this month at the community allotments at Carr Lane bringing members of the community together. There are plenty of things to do across all the allotment plots (8 plots in total) and it will keep all the volunteers led by: We Are Fish very busy over the coming months.

Community and Partnership working

Over the summer, We Are Fish have been temporarily running the Pitstop in the Park in Sidney Park to ensure it can keep serving the community. There are ongoing discussions to see if this can happen on a more permanent basis, but the overall intention is that Pitstop continues to serve a useful service to the local community and park users.

Work continues behind the scenes to try and get the Sussex Rec Pavilion open again and back up and running to support the community. Since the passing of Steve Pygott there have been many legal and logistical hurdles to overcome, but We Are Fish and the Sidney Sussex Pavilion group are busy working together to get the Pavilion open as soon as possible – hopefully in September.

Work continues internally at the community hub at 82 Grimsby Road to change layout and furniture to make the rooms and spaces even more usable for community activities. Funding for this comes from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and supports the work of Big Local.  If you’re a member of North Cleethorpes community, it would be great to have you pop in to 82 Grimsby Road to see what we’re up to and what we can offer. We’ve also been exploring converting the upstairs back into a flat to rent.

This month we’ve been putting together a short video update about Big Local, and we’ll be posting this on CleeTV and the Big Local website in early September.

Our ‘cost of living’ activities continue to 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 as well as offer help and support ourselves in the hub with VANEL’s help.