Work begins on new community centre with Focus Consultants as project manager

New Community project in Lincolnshire with Focus

Work is now underway on building a new community centre in Lincolnshire village Mareham le Fen, which will replace a 100-year-old tin and timber hall.

Focus Consultants is project managing the scheme, having earlier supported the Village Hall Management Committee in securing a grant of just over £500,000 from The Big Lottery Fund. Other main funders include WREN, a not-for-profit grant-giving business, who donated £50,000, and Lindsey Action Zone.

The committee has raised further funds through community events and donations to cover the overall £800,000 cost of the project for the new multi-purpose building, which will serve the residents of Mareham le Fen, situated between Horncastle and Boston, as well as the surrounding parishes. 

Long-standing community member John Ellwood was given the honour of cutting the first sod. He was accompanied by pupils of Mareham Le Fen Church of England Primary School along with their headteacher Avril Moore.

Graham Beacham, chairman of Mareham le Fen Village Hall and Memorial Lawn Management Committee, said: “This is a great day. It’s so good to see the start of a new centre for the community. It has been quite a journey, but with the support of so many, success has been achieved.” 

Focus Consultants building surveyor Chris Smith, who grew up in the village and played a key role in helping to secure the Big Lottery Grant and in taking the project forward, said: “A new community building for Mareham le Fen is long overdue and I am delighted to have played a part in getting the scheme to where it is now, with a start on site.

“Focus is project managing the development and I am looking forward to seeing the building taking shape over the next few weeks and months.”

Local company Taylor Pearson has been contracted to carry out the building work, which is due to be completed in November 2017. The Boston office of Focus Consultants is handling the project management side of the scheme.

Additional funders who are supporting the building include Lincolnshire County Council, East Lindsey District Council, Garfield Weston Foundation, Trusthouse Charitable Foundation, Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation and Lincolnshire Co-op Community Champions.

Focus, which has its headquarters in Nottingham and other offices in London, Leicester, and Aubourn in Lincolnshire, offers a range of services in funding and economic development, project management, sustainable development and building surveying.

Since 1994 Focus has also secured for clients more than £953 million of grants for projects and businesses across the UK and delivered more than £1.3 billion worth of projects and programmes – making it one of the most successful businesses of its kind in the country.

For more information, visit www.focus-consultants.co.uk

Press release issued by Nottingham based PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk

£½ million grant secured by Focus Consultants for village hall scheme

Funding experts at Focus Consultants have secured £½ million to help a rural community build a new village hall.The £456,225 Big Lottery Grant will enable Mareham le Fen Village Hall near Boston in Lincolnshire to replace a 100-year-old tin and timber hall with a modern, more central facility.The news, which comes on top of an earlier £43,775 Big Lottery Grant also secured by Focus, has special significance for one Focus employee, who grew up in the village, has family living there and who played a key role in helping to secure the grant.

“Focus as a company has helped to achieve millions of pounds in grants for numerous organisations ranging from major museums to large companies, but it was particularly pleasing to learn that we’d successfully secured the Big Lottery Grant for Mareham le Fen, which is the village I grew up in from the age of five and the place that my mum still lives,” said Focus building surveyor Chris Smith, who works in the Boston office of Focus.

“When I heard the village was raising money for a new village hall, I offered our services as consultants, and I am delighted that everything is pointing to a successful conclusion to the plans to build a new community facility in Mareham le Fen.”

Chris worked with members of the funding team at Nottingham-based Focus Consultants to put together reports for the Big Lottery Grant bid. 

Chairman of Mareham le Fen Village Hall Committee, Graham Beacham, said: “We were delighted by the news that the village has been awarded this Big Lottery Grant, and would like to thank the team at Focus for their hard work and expertise.”

The village hall committee, which has also successfully secured grants from Lincolnshire County Council and East Lindsey District Council, is now waiting to hear from other funding sources it has applied to before embarking on building work. The committee hopes that building work may start in spring, with completion six months later. 

It is planned that the new hall will be used seven days a week to host dance and fitness sessions, arts and crafts activities, a luncheon club, social events, and meetings. The new hall will also be a venue for private functions such as weddings and christenings, and will be more central for the village, safer and with access to car parking, and will be wheelchair friendly.

In 2012, Focus Consultants successfully helped villagers in Heydour in Lincolnshire to secure £458,133 funding from the Big Lottery Fund to build a new community centre. The money allowed the village to tear down the old World War One officers’ mess hut and replace it with a modern and versatile community facility. The £750,000 project was completed a year later.

Focus, which also has offices in Aubourn, Lincolnshire, in Holborn, London, and in Leicester, is a specialist in helping clients to secure grants, and since its creation in 1994, the company has helped to secure more than £925 million of grant assistance for a range of projects and businesses across the UK and delivered more than £1.0 billion worth of projects and programmes – making it one of the most successful businesses of its kind in the country.

For more information on funding available for communities please visit www.focus-consultants.co.uk or contact the funding and economic development team on 0115 976 5050.Press release issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk