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Big Lottery Stage 2 bid success!
Ashton is one step closer to having a world class community facility following a £500,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund’s Community Buildings Programme. The new building, known as The 4 C Community Centre, is sited in the churchyard at Christ Church Ashton. The Centre will provide a large hall, café area, kitchen/bar, flexible meeting rooms, offices, toilets and storage. It will be open to the whole community to support new activities and opportunities.
The Revd Lee Longden, Vicar of Christ Church, said: “We were honoured to receive the green light to take the next step in developing this facility. Our priority now is to make sure everyone knows what an opportunity this is, and to allow everyone to understand what will happen as the project moves forward.”
It is hoped that that Big Lottery Fund grant will release a further £700,000 worth of grants to complete the project, with a further £100,000 coming from businesses and local fund raising.
Jonathan Hindle, Chair of The 4 C Community Centre project committee, said: “This is great news after much hard work by our team of volunteers. We hope everyone will visit our website to see the plans and be involved in this fantastic community resource. This is a chance to give Ashton a legacy that will last for generations and will be highly sustainable in its construction and use.”
The project has received wide community support from local MP David Heyes and elected officials. Commenting on the news, David Heyes said: "I was delighted to hear about the Big Lottery award. Thanks are due to a fine team of volunteers who worked long and hard on this imaginative and much needed scheme. The new centre will be a great place for the community to come together and I know it will be welcomed by local people".
The Site for the new centre
Churchyard changes The completion of the building will involve the relocation of about 240 graves. The relocation will follow a strict code which involves proper consultation, reburial within the church yard, individual prayers at reburial and re-dedication. It is estimated that there are about 880 burials in the graves.
Tom Wragg said; “I have a relative buried in this part of the churchyard. When I heard the grave was to be relocated I had mixed feelings but I have seen the plans and know this will be done with respect and dignity. A chance to provide a community facility like this, in Ashton, comes only once in a generation. We will have a churchyard which will be respectful and a facility that future generations will thank us for.”
Project website at www.4ccommunitycentre.org.uk
Church website at www.christchurch-ashton.org.uk
Consultation
The completion of the building will involve the relocation of about 240 graves to another place in the church yard. The majority of the graves to be relocated date from before 1900. A small number of burials date from 1930 to 1958 when the final burial took place. 90% of the church yard will not be disturbed; the effected graves will be relocated to an unused burial area within the church yard. It is expected that the relocation of the graves will take a week. Each individual burial will have Christian prayers said as re-burial takes place. The Bishop will rededicate the graves in a special service of thanksgivings.
As the churchyard was grassed over in 1973, the graves that will be relocated no longer have grave stones. As a matter of respect, a new memorial stone will mark the new burial area. A number of other sites were considered as part of a feasibility study prior to submission of the planning application. During the consultation process the plans will be available for people to view with ample opportunity for concerns to be made known.
Planning application approved
March 2008
The planning application for the project has now been approved by the Planning Speakers Panel at its meeting on the 13th March 2008. As the building is on church land, the consent of the Diocese is also required. The Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) has also now issued a Certiifcate to Recommend approval.
Big Lottery Stage 2 bid submitted
March 2008
As part of the ongoing fundraising for the project, we were invited to apply to the second stage of the Community Buildings Programme by the Big Lottery. A full Business Plan and Delivery Plan has been prepared to support the bid.
'Bale Us Out' 2007
We held a fun event for the children from our 3 local schools (Canon Burrows, Canon Johnson and Waterloo). The 'Bale Us Out' event highlighted the project's use of eco-friendly building materials such as straw to minimise its environmental impact. The children all held hands to form the outline of the building.
Newsletter Autumn 2007 published
Download a PDF version of our latest newsletter (1.41 MB)
Fun fund raising
Help us raise funding for the project the easy way. Use the search button below to find what you want from over 100 online shops including ASDA, M&S, Amazon. All purchases generate funds for the project. So join in the effort and please use our store. Don't forget it doesn't cost you any extra so send the link to your friends, family and colleagues.
Project start up funding secured from the ERDF
This project is part sponsored by through a grant from the European Regional Development Fund . The grant has helped to pay towards the set up costs and continuing development of the project.
Kaushika Mistry of Tameside MBC Economic Development Team assisted the Board through the grant process and we are grateful for her continued support for the project
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