Project Update : 20th January

Another Milestone reached!
Here’s an update from Jayne, our Charity’s (Banana Enterprise Network) CEO.
“This morning we heard from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) to say that our Expression of Interest document (which we submitted on 5th January) for our £3 million project to restore/expand Grade 2 Listed Rock Hall, has been accepted and we have been invited to submit a full funding bid! It was our 2nd attempt. This is fantastic news. The bid preparation is going to be hard work and very time consuming and we have a lot of information to read through, before we can even start to complete the bid. However, we are still completely committed to our project and we will do what it takes to succeed.

We already know about some of the tasks involved and we will need help from our steering group members and the community. For example, we need to obtain some Letters of Support from the local community (e.g local groups, charities, businesses, local people and schools etc), who want to see Rock Hall renovated and reopened as a multi purpose community venue. We also need to raise the 10% match/partnership funding that the NLHF require (this could be as much as £300,000).

It’s not going to be easy and there is a lot of competition for limited funding, which is what we have said all along. However, here we are at this critical milestone after our 2 year journey to Save Rock Hall for the community. Now, as we enter the 3rd year of our project, we will need your support even more. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be developing our fundraising strategy, formalising Volunteering roles and getting our heads around all the tasks we need to complete for the funding bid. We have also recently strengthened our Board of Trustees by adding two local residents who have specific skills that we need for the project.

We will post another update once we have completed all that and let you know how you can get involved if you wish to do so. It will be a team effort. I know we have your support to help us succeed and we are extremely grateful. Thank you so much!”

Grateful thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for giving us the opportunity to submit the £3million funding bid for our project!