Local MP Marcus Jones has welcomed an announcement by ‘Big Local’ that their significant England wide community programme will see Hill Top, which falls in Nuneaton, receive an investment of at least £1 million over at least the next ten years.
Big Local is a groundbreaking long-term Lottery programme to achieve lasting change in 150 small areas across England. Hill Top is one of 50 areas that have been identified in this second wave of funding through Big Local. The first 50 communities were announced in July 2010, and are now making good progress. Big Local aims to put people locally in the driving seat, and encourages them to work together to form a shared vision of their local area, to make decisions about how to use the funding to make their area an even better place to live.
They have selected communities with high levels of need, which may have been overlooked for funding in the past, particularly funding from the Big Lottery Fund and Big Local has also aimed to select communities from across the region, both in urban and rural areas.
Funding and support to the area will be delivered by Local Trust, a recently established, independent organisation set up by the Community Development Foundation and its consortium partners to run Big Local. They will work in close consultation with residents in each area to support them and offer guidance on their plans.
In the first instance Big Local representatives will bring residents and community organisations in each of the funded areas together to learn about Big Local, create strategies to get people involved and then begin the process of deciding what priorities local people have for the money and setting up a local partnership. They will then work with the areas to help them develop a plan to spend the £1m funding over the next ten years.
Commenting on the announcement, Marcus said: “This is superb news for Hill Top and the local community, for many years other areas have over shadowed Hill Top when funding has been granted. I know this funding will make a huge difference and give really positive support to the people of Hill Top. I offer my thanks to Big Local for providing this investment.”