Community case studies
News from member towns around the county
John Gerrard from Winchcombe explains how GMTF networking led to the 'greening' of the town's community centre which now boasts new windows and will soon have solar panels which will create an income for the hall! Find out more here.
Janet
Marrott from Coleford Area
Partnership looks back at what it
took to finally create the town's new community
enterprise centre, the Main Place. Includes
useful 'lessons learned' about working in partnership
and looking to the future. Click here to read more.
The
'Greening' of Abbey Fields Community Centre -
Winchcombe
Winchombe's
community centre, housed in the 100 year old school
buildings of the former Junior School, is celebrating
a £34,000 renewal of all its glazing, cutting
fuel bills and making the building more welcoming.
Plans are also afoot to install solar panels at a
cost of a further £30,500. The panels will
generate 8400 KWh of electricity per year
representing an overall saving of around
£3,500, a payback of 9 years and an ROI of
11.6%.
And it all started with some advice from
Gloucestershire Market Towns Forum, as our Winchcombe
correspondent
John Gerrard reports: "With the dramatic increase
in energy costs experienced over the past few years
our operating costs for the community centre rocketed
and we needed to do something about it.
"Fortunately Winchcombe is a member of the
Gloucestershire Market Towns Forum who put us in
touch with the Severn
Wye Energy Agency who give good practical advice
and carried out an Energy Audit. They recommended we
improve the thermal insulation in our roof spaces and
walls, replace all the old windows for modern double
glazing and then consider the installation of solar
panels to generate electricity.
"We used our own funds and manpower to install the
insulation and thanks to the generosity of Winchcombe
Town Council, Gloucestershire Community Foundation
"Grass Roots" grants and the Summerfield Trust we
have just completed a £34,000 renewal of all
our glazing.
"The work was carried out to a very high quality by
Cotswold Windows who are locally based at Toddington
and fortunately was completed just before the recent
cold snap. Our customers are already reporting a huge
improvement in the warmth of the various halls and we
look forward to a considerable reduction in our
heating bills.
"The final link in the chain will be the provision
of solar panels for our large roof areas and thanks
to the expert guidance of Severn Wye Energy, who have
their own pilot scheme, we are now ready to go ahead
with this project and subject to grant funding and
Planning Approval will have the new system generating
power later this spring.
"Apart from reducing our greenhouse gas CO2
emissions by 90 tonnes over the 25-year life of the
panels, another important benefit is that we intend
involving Winchcombe School in developing the project
thus giving the students a practical opportunity to
learn about solar power generation. We have had our
first meeting with the deputy head and team of 6
students. Interestingly they have just won a major
British Gas competition prize and will be getting a
£30,000 solar panel scheme free of charge. We
will be able to give them a lot of support in
developing this. Perhaps the funniest thing we heard
from them is that they now run a name and shame
scheme for those staff who fail to turn lights
off!!"
"And we have just heard we are to receive a grant
for £10,000 from Cotswolds AONB!"
John is also full of praise for the PV contractors
Ethical Solar . "They are a young enthusiastic
company based in Bristol and have given us superb
service so far in answering a wide range of
questions. They also produced the photo montage of
the finished scheme. Importantly they source their
panels from Norway where they are manufactured using
clean green hydro-electric power so their
environmental impact payback is hugely
reduced."
Lessons learned from creating Coleford's Main
Place
Coleford's spanking new £2.5m community
enterprise centre, called The Main Place, has won the
Action for Market Towns South West Regional Award for
Partnership and Strategic working - well deserved to
mark the completion of many years of hard work. The
Forum's last networking event gave people from all
over the county a chance to look around the
facilities - for the full report, click
here. But the road to the opening of the
community enterprise building has been far from
smooth. Here Janet Marrott of Coleford Area
Partnership gives a brief history of the struggle to
get the new building off the ground, together with
lessons learned and a view to the future.
The Main Place provides:
• A purpose-built Adult Day Care Centre, new to
the Coleford area to provide for clients
• A new, larger 21st century library with an
Internet Café replacing a 1960s flat roofed
building
• New purpose-built facilities for young
people
• Community hall and training level catering
standard kitchen
• Enterprise Area incorporating offices to let
and training/meeting rooms used by business/support
services and community groups
Achievements to date:
• An Open Day on Easter Monday linked to the
Carnival of Transport meant that in excess of 1,000
people took advantage of the opportunity to look at
the new premises
• The building itself is rated as BREEAM
Excellent, thus addressing Climate Change
issues
• A 60% increase in Library Membership (During
the first week of opening the footfall was the
equivalent of that for a month previously)
• A spacious IT suite with refreshment
facility
• Happy Adult Learning clients through
RFDC
• Transfer of some existing users eg. Dr.
Charley group
• Added new users in Enterprise area with three
offices let by September
• RDPE funding to help systems to deliver more
outputs and outcomes
• Ongoing management of premises by the four
occupiers
Lessons learned to maintain
partnership
• Evidence of need is crucial
• Support from community is essential so keep
the conversation going
• Negotiation has to happen, but be firm on
"this bit is critical to us"
• Alter modes of working to overcome barriers,
support from partners can really help
• Learn from expertise, and pass this on
• Different teams do different jobs. Let them
get on, but know what they are doing. Link up.
• Watch the budget
History
The people of Coleford had long been used to
consultation. In 1993 a Town Council-led consultation
took place, with assistance from the Chamber of Trade
and local residents, to ascertain the opinion of the
community with regard to housing, shopping, transport
and various other matters affecting the life of the
town. The information gained was passed on to
Statutory Authorities to help develop future Local
Planning documents.
News that the Coleford Community Centre in Bank
Street, built in 1968, was to be closed and the land
sold off was first made public at a Forest of Dean
District Council (FODDC) led Regeneration Group
meeting held in 1997. Members of Coleford Town
Council were present at a meeting involving Statutory
Authorities, local businesses and community workers.
Shortly after this the Town Council determined to set
aside money towards costs likely to be
required.
In 2001 a Healthcheck consultation was carried out,
to which the public were invited in venues within the
town. The Consultation also involved the users of the
Community Centre and pupils at Lakers School and the
Royal Forest of Dean College.
Partnership with parishes
Following the successful application to become part
of the Market and Coastal Towns Initiative, a
Community Partnership was set up in 2002. (Coleford
Area Market and Coastal Towns Initiative Partnership)
This organisation was responsible for full
consultation and this began in July 2002.
The consultation led to the development of "Time for
Coleford", the community led plan, which evidenced
need for the following:
• Replacement of the ageing 1960s Community
Centre
• Regeneration within the area to provide
services and employment
• Affordable Housing
The town-based Partnership extended to include the
surrounding six Parishes who, by this time, were
beginning the process of Parish Plans, facilitated
through the Countryside Agency.
Progress with District, County and Regional
Partners
The retention/replacement of the centre led to a
Feasibility study funded through the Coleford Area
MCTI Partnership, South West Regional Development
Agency (SWRDA) and Coleford Town Council. County
Council officers had determined development on a
sloping site near to the town's extended shopping
area developed in the 1987/88 period.
While plans were being drawn up, the owner sold to
another developer. This led to the agreement to do a
land swap for a different location. Finance provided
through SWRDA enabled FODDC to purchase the Bank
Street site from GCC. FODDC then provided the Old
Station Way site which had formed a coach parking
area and was underused. Income to GCC from sale of
old site was sued to part fund the new building,
together with additional finance from SWRDA to fund
the Enterprise Area, and government finance for
provision of Day Centres for clients with Learning
Disabilities made up the difference.
Building the new premises at Old Station
Way
Development of plans and the construction was
through a joint working party of Coleford Area MCTI
Partnership, Gloucestershire County Council, Forest
of Dean District Council, Quattro Architectural
Design Team and Kier Moss Construction.
The next phase
As a part of the Tripartite Agreement between SWRDA,
GCC and FODDC, the redevelopment of the Bank Street
site, together with an area of land to the rear of
the previously County Council owned site already in
the ownership of FODDC. Consultation with public and
various bodies next step.