Rock Hall Project Update

Time is ticking by since we submitted our joint funding bid with the Council in May. We have been asked many times as to when and how, the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) will be making their decision for our Rock Hall Revival project this September. The NLHF have 6 committees and one of those covers our location (i.e the North of the UK).

What apparently happened last year at the Committee meeting (when our charity Banana Enterprise first applied to them for the £4million), was that an NLHF Senior Investment Manager presented our project to the Committee, giving them background information about the journey we have been on, our achievements and detailed information about our proposals for the Hall and project management etc. They look at the risks involved with the project but they will also look at the benefits (to the Hall , the community and the nature and wildlife in the park etc) and how we will meet their “outcomes”. Details of these are here https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/funding/outcomes

We presume that this years meeting will be a similar format, only this time, we assume that the Committee will also look at how we have addressed their feedback from last year (when they also “strongly” urged us to reapply again).

The NLHF Committee will have other projects to consider at the same time as ours in mid-September and will make their decision on which projects are successful or not. It is very competitive and we may not be successful again but at least we will have tried!

We know the date that the committee is meeting and the possible date that we will be informed of their decision but we won’t be able to let you know until the NLHF say that we can announce the result. However, residents across the North of England will probably hear the screams of excitement from our team if it’s a ‘Yes’ this time .

Fully funded Community activities:-

The weather is continuing to dampen some of our outdoor activities but we are doing what we can despite the rain.

It’s our final Rock Hall art in the park session on 2nd September (2 places left) so we will begin asking for your votes for the winning painting after that. They are all excellent so far. We are hoping to start a new art group in Farnworth as a result of this new project.

We are also excited to be teaming up with an outdoor activities provider so that we can deliver more fun and varied activities in future. We will be announcing more details of that once everything is finalised.

Delivery from the USA – we decided to purchase a document which was being sold in the USA and bring it back to Bolton! It’s on its way to the UK as we speak and we are looking forward to receiving it. We think it will be appreciated mainly by the older generation amongst us! All will be revealed once it arrives.

Our team are counting down the days until the Heritage Lottery decision day (mid-September) but there’s also still a lot going on in the background which is keeping us busy!

Thank you for your continued support!