Ipswich Borough Council is pleased to announce that thirteen applicants have been awarded grants to improve their facilities.
The Local Shopping Parades Towns Fund project, designed to assist neighbourhood shopping areas, will use these grants to pay for improvements to community buildings, bringing them up to date and improving accessibility. Grants have been awarded to the following local community groups:
Chantry Residents Association - who are improving their charity shop, purchasing a defibrillator, and installing a gazebo to enable outreach events aimed at helping local people.
Ipswich BMX - who are improving their community kitchen and installing a serving hatch, flooring, and safety handrails for riders.
Emmaus Suffolk, Dales and Felixstowe Roads - who are making their buildings weatherproof, painting where needed, and improving their community gardens.
St Mary Stoke Church - who are adding a landscaped trail around the church comprising of a medicinal, sensory and wildlife garden with varying nature habitats, along with outside seating and an improved community garden.
These grants aim to support local community groups in creating spaces for people come together, meet friends, and participate in community activities. As well as to create accessible community hubs that are sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Tracey Reeve, Ipswich BMX says:
“We are in the process of ordering all the materials to move forward with this project. On the 3rd of March we will be installing the handrail and fencing on the Start Hill track, keeping safety at the forefront of our minds. This will see the completion of work, which was started in May 2021.
Support from the Towns fund has been invaluable and without it we would be struggling to complete the work. The kitchen/medical room fit out, and flooring in the clubhouse, has been planned, but not yet complete. We’re now hoping to have the work completed in March 2024. Thank you again for the Towns fund support, with this support and other funders it is allowing us to be sustainable as well as to provide longevity for the club.”
Our Local Shopping Parades Project Board Chair, Azzouz El-Mahraoui, says:
“Updates to Community facilities have been needed for some time and it’s great to see this happening now, linked to the wider improvements on the Parades throughout the Borough. I’m so happy to see the community hubs being improved alongside the rest of the Parades that are due to see changes any time now.”
This project is an example of how to get people engaged and using their local shopping parades again.”
Councillor Bryony Rudkin, Ipswich Borough Council Portfolio Holder for Strategy, Culture and Customers, says:
“These Community Facilities Grants are integral to ensuring the Local Shopping Parades are well used; using Towns Funds can improve our community facilities so local people can meet in up-to-date community hubs that are accessible and comfortable. Creating opportunities to meet old friends, and make news ones, whilst benefiting from having local shops.”
