Report on Big Local Activities for May 2023

Big Local North Cleethorpes: May 2023 activity update

This is the May 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

Discussions continue with TransPennine Express about We are Fish leasing the old Cycle Hub building on Cleethorpes Station. The group along with Lyns Powles have now been shown around the building which they hope to be able to convert into an art gallery and community arts, crafts and young people focused venue. TransPennine seemed very supportive and the legal and logistical side of things are now being followed up on.  This will either happen quickly in the next month or two or not at all, but after this initial meeting things look positive.

Arts sessions continue in the shed and the new Paper Crafters group continues to meet.  A local resident has come forward requesting to use the shed to run ‘recycling’ craft group for local people and has now met weekly during May and hopefully this group will continue to grow.

Community arts and crafts group continued this month in the shed on Tuesdays too.

Three more bookings for the Thorpe Park Holiday Home have come in this month meaning a few more local families will have benefitted from this Big Local supported opportunity.

We are starting to look at plans for a North Cleethorpes Fringe event for this year’s Urban Arts Festival (led by Lyns Powles) but we need to support Lyns to look at various match funding sources such as Art Council first.

Supporting Young People and Families

Local ward councillors have worked with Reynolds Academy and have identified around 70 children from Sidney Sussex ward who will now be receiving a panda alarm from the stock provided from ward councillor funding. Other children outside of Sidney Sussex will also receive a panda alarm but funded from the PCC equipment fund.

At the request of We are Fish, Hangout provided some funding to Lyns Powles so she could run a ‘space painting’ session with children over the Coronation weekend as part of larger range of family activities at Sidney Park.

The new “Little Green Influencers” group for children aged 2-5 which began in March at Reynolds Family Hub is continuing to run very well with families and children enjoying the sessions. We are working in partnership with Nurture Nature to explore expanding this project over the summer. For information contact Sam Smith at VANEL.

A visit took place by the Major of North East Lincolnshire to Reynolds Family Hub garden to unveil a commemorative plaque as a thank you to Alan Johnson for all his hard work volunteering to support the development of this garden for the children. As well as the plaque, the funding helped with tomato plants which the children potted with the Mayor and growing butterflies – some of which were released as part of the well-attended event. A big thank you to Alan Johnson for making this garden grow.

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.

£1000 of food gift vouchers were provided in May to the Old Clee foodbank to support their clients with a further £500 to ensure they meet residents’ demand in June.

Supporting Older People

VANEL now has FraudWatch funding once again to provide scams talks and advice across North East Lincolnshire. Groups and residents in North Cleethorpes will benefit from this. Karl has already delivered one scam talk in Cleethorpes in May and several more talks are being organised over the next few months to support local residents.

The offer of personal/household security equipment continues to be available to residents across North East Lincolnshire. During May several households with older residents have received security equipment. Other households with young families have also been supported. A number of referrals have come from the local Policing team who have identified vulnerable residents in Sidney Sussex in particular. Catalogues of available equipment are accessible online or from 82 Grimsby Road.

We’re now low on supplies of our Message in a Bottle tubs and are having difficulty sourcing new supplies via Lions. We hope we can get a new supply within the next few months as more older people are interested in having them.

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.

The new Older People’s social group at St Peters Church is slowly growing and the majority of attendees are from the DN35 area. Karl is working with the group after BLNC provided a small start-up grant and we aim to reach even more local residents. A scams talk will be provided in June and security equipment is being offered.

Carr Lane and Beacon Hill allotments which are used by our Big Local area residents are now formally Allotment Watches and because a large number of plot holders are more senior, Karl is working with the allotment groups to share more community safety advice and support with those on site.  Currently, a new funding application is being submitted to the PCC by VANEL to try and fund an experimental technological solution on Beacon Hill Allotments to improve site safety especially for people with sheds.

We attended the Older Peoples event organised by the Later Life Partnership at the Town Hall and were able to speak to quite a number of older people who lived in North Cleethorpes. Advice was provided as well as new orders for security equipment.

Environmental

The Community Allotments (8 plots) on Carr Lane site continue to be developed by the volunteers from We are Fish. Green Influencers and Sam are supporting the group on site too. Carr Lane site more generally is now an Allotment Watch site.  A Mayoral Fund award of £250 was given to the group and the Major, Steve Beasant, visited the site to handover the cheque.  A new shed for the site has now arrived but has not yet been erected due to technical issues but should be in place in the coming weeks.

All 3 DN35 area Green Influencers groups continue to work 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. A new Green Influencers lunch club continued during May at St Peter’s Avenue Primary.

We provided printing facilities as requested by local residents who were involved in campaigning about the proposed salmon farm at the community consultation event that took place in May and have been approached to co-ordinate public briefings.

Community and Partnership working

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 would like an article.

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. Now the funding has been finalised, this work on the hub will get underway in June.

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 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.