May/100
Lottery dream comes true for former mining town
The East Midlands town Newstead celebrated a £400,000 cash injection of lottery money to help revive the area.
Former mining town Newstead has been awarded money through a project called Village SOS. The scheme is ran by the Big Lottery Fund and the BBC.
The money will be put towards a ten year community plan which involves creating a country park on the site of a pit slag heap.
The scheme, titled Future Newstead, headed by Mick Leivers stated “It’s exciting times. As a community we worked our socks off to put ourselves in a good position to get lottery funding,” he added.
“Out of the selection process we were one of the most deprived villages in terms of finance and facilities.”
The nationwide scheme is supporting six projects, awarding money across the UK. Future Newstead will offer a variety of facilities including an eco-friendly resource centre, fishing lakes and music festival.
The development will spread across 220 acres of former colliery spoil heaps purchased in autumn last year that had been backed by an East Midlands Development Agency.
Mick Leivers is particularly positive about the development in fishing that could help in several ways.
“This was a really popular choice amongst local villagers.
“We will be providing training for young people interested in angling so we can perhaps professionalise some of the lakes around Nottinghamshire and provide, through fishing, a means for people to learn about their environment.”
A documentary
The Newstead SOS has been surrounded by much media inetrest. The village will be filmed by BBC cameras and a documentary is due to be screened in April 2011 to show how the scheme has changed the area.
Publicity surrounding the award is reaping benefitsWord of the award is already reaping benefits according the Mr Leivers.
“The number of volunteers we’ve had has been phenomenal. We set up a Facebook site and had 1600 members join within a matter of weeks. It’s obviously going to engage a lot of people.
“It’s all about the local community but also about bringing other people into the community to share our village and realise what a fantastic place Newstead really is.”
The community are backing the development 100% and believe it is a positive step towards Newsteads future. Tracey Sabin a local resident said: “The scheme is going to be a lifeline to the village. It’s going to provide Newstead with some level of pride that was taken away when the pit shut down [in 1987]. It’ll get the community alive and kicking again.”
Head of the East Midlands Region for the Big Lottery Fund, Mick McGrath, echoed the locals enthusiasm saying, “This Village SOS award will kick start a revival in the former mining village of Newstead, helping to secure the future of the community by putting power into the hands of the villagers.
“I hope that their innovative ideas, which will bring tourists to the area as well as teach positive activities to disengaged young people, will inspire others across the UK to reinvigorate their rural communities.”
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