Meltham's Carlile Institute has the 'Power to Change'!
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The Carlile Institute in Meltham, has been awarded £238,001 from the Power to Change, an independent charitable trust endowed with £150 million from the Big Lottery Fund to grow community business in England, to finalise its refurbishment and provide more services for local people. The refurbishment of the Victorian Carlile Institute began in 2013, when a local community group set about taking over the once abandoned building on the town’s high street. The community business is run by around 20 local members, currently attracts 6,500 local users, and reinvests its profits into improving and diversifying services needed by the community. It houses Meltham post office, Meltham Town Council, spaces for community groups and three businesses occupy the office suite, and will soon include a local library.
Paul White, Chair of Trustees at the community business commented “Power to Change’s decision to award us a grant enables us to complete the restoration and refurbishment of Meltham’s Carlile Institute. This is fantastic news for the people of Meltham and a real vote of confidence for the community volunteers, led by Richard Noon, that have worked so hard to bring this about. Once the work is completed later in the year, The Carlile Institute will be an exceptional community hub with Post Office, Library, Town Council offices, and more space for community groups, in a beautifully restored and modernised building. We will be able to offer more affordable workspace for local businesses which will boost local employment and offer a wider variety of local services which will keep spending local.”
Community volunteer, Richard Noon who led the funding application said “I am over the moon – who would have thought that from a meeting in the pub in November 2013, that two years later we’d have got this far – as the auditors and assessors have stated in their grant award, this is a truly exciting and innovative project which is owned and managed by the community in an exemplary manner.
“We have been through a rigorous process which started in June 2015. We had a visit from an assessor and representatives from Power to Change during the autumn and we discovered we were successful at the back end of November. We have since been preparing our schedule of work and really trying to maximise the local value we will deliver from this amazing grant.”
The grant award will be used to fully refurbish the Mechanics Institute at the rear of the building as well as refurbish the toilet facilities upstairs and reinstate publicly accessible toilets on the ground floor for the first time since the former toilet block on Clarke Lane was closed.
Mr Noon added “It has always been the business plan that this refurbishment would provide local residents with high quality space to use for meetings, parties, dance lessons and everything else in between. Disabled access will be provided to the first floor for the first time in the 125 years that the building has existed to ensure that all residents from across Meltham and beyond can access the facilities.”
There will also be a phase of work to introduce a new mezzanine floor which will create new space for the building and an area for relaxing with a book from the library or to have informal meetings. Works will be completed while keeping the Carlile Institute open to the public while causing minimum disruption. Architect David Bottomore is leading the design, and Bray Building Services is the lead contractor.
Alongside scheduling the construction works, the community business, currently a Community Interest Company (CIC), will be transforming to a charity organisation. “The CIC has been a terrific vehicle to get us this far, but as development work is less frenetic, a charity brings with it further trust and greater public perception.” explained Mr Noon. “Tax relief and opening up new avenues of funding for future developments is another benefit.”
“We have a lot of work to do. We have spent the last couple of years raising the profile of the Carlile Institute as well as helping others working on similar projects in Holmfirth, and Slathwaite and Marsden through Locality and Kirklees Council.” added Mr Noon.
Opened in 1891 and left to the people of Meltham by J W Carlile, The Carlile Institute this year celebrates its 125th anniversary. “A number of events are planned to celebrate this as the year passes, so the grant comes at a very special moment in the building’s history.” said Mr White.
Notes to Editors:
About The Carlile Institute:
The property was taken back into community ownership in early 2014 and since then has attracted praise from local, regional and national bodies. The community business was a major component in a bid that saw Meltham reach the finals of ‘The Great British High Street Awards’ in 2014. Two of the founding Trustees have received accolades for their efforts from Locality at the House of Lords and was also a major driving force in a huge community project to deliver aid to Syrian refugees in 2015 which saw the Carlile Institute featured on ITV, The Guardian and BBC TV and radio. The project was also highly commended in the 2015 Examiner Community Project of the Year Award.
About Power to Change:
Started in 2015, Power to Change is an independent charitable trust endowed with £150 million from the Big Lottery Fund to grow community business in England. Over ten years, they will provide funding and support to help build many more successful and sustainable local community businesses across England.
Power to Change will provide funding and support to help build many more sustainable community businesses that have positive social, economic and environmental impact in local places.
About the Big Lottery Fund:
Press contacts:
Power to Change: Charlotte.Cassedanne {@} thepowertochange.org.uk
Carlile Institute: Richard Noon hashtagmeltham {@} hotmail.co.uk
Website: http://www.thepowertochange.org.uk/
Paul White, Chair of Trustees at the community business commented “Power to Change’s decision to award us a grant enables us to complete the restoration and refurbishment of Meltham’s Carlile Institute. This is fantastic news for the people of Meltham and a real vote of confidence for the community volunteers, led by Richard Noon, that have worked so hard to bring this about. Once the work is completed later in the year, The Carlile Institute will be an exceptional community hub with Post Office, Library, Town Council offices, and more space for community groups, in a beautifully restored and modernised building. We will be able to offer more affordable workspace for local businesses which will boost local employment and offer a wider variety of local services which will keep spending local.”
Community volunteer, Richard Noon who led the funding application said “I am over the moon – who would have thought that from a meeting in the pub in November 2013, that two years later we’d have got this far – as the auditors and assessors have stated in their grant award, this is a truly exciting and innovative project which is owned and managed by the community in an exemplary manner.
“We have been through a rigorous process which started in June 2015. We had a visit from an assessor and representatives from Power to Change during the autumn and we discovered we were successful at the back end of November. We have since been preparing our schedule of work and really trying to maximise the local value we will deliver from this amazing grant.”
The grant award will be used to fully refurbish the Mechanics Institute at the rear of the building as well as refurbish the toilet facilities upstairs and reinstate publicly accessible toilets on the ground floor for the first time since the former toilet block on Clarke Lane was closed.
Mr Noon added “It has always been the business plan that this refurbishment would provide local residents with high quality space to use for meetings, parties, dance lessons and everything else in between. Disabled access will be provided to the first floor for the first time in the 125 years that the building has existed to ensure that all residents from across Meltham and beyond can access the facilities.”
There will also be a phase of work to introduce a new mezzanine floor which will create new space for the building and an area for relaxing with a book from the library or to have informal meetings. Works will be completed while keeping the Carlile Institute open to the public while causing minimum disruption. Architect David Bottomore is leading the design, and Bray Building Services is the lead contractor.
Alongside scheduling the construction works, the community business, currently a Community Interest Company (CIC), will be transforming to a charity organisation. “The CIC has been a terrific vehicle to get us this far, but as development work is less frenetic, a charity brings with it further trust and greater public perception.” explained Mr Noon. “Tax relief and opening up new avenues of funding for future developments is another benefit.”
“We have a lot of work to do. We have spent the last couple of years raising the profile of the Carlile Institute as well as helping others working on similar projects in Holmfirth, and Slathwaite and Marsden through Locality and Kirklees Council.” added Mr Noon.
Opened in 1891 and left to the people of Meltham by J W Carlile, The Carlile Institute this year celebrates its 125th anniversary. “A number of events are planned to celebrate this as the year passes, so the grant comes at a very special moment in the building’s history.” said Mr White.
Notes to Editors:
About The Carlile Institute:
The property was taken back into community ownership in early 2014 and since then has attracted praise from local, regional and national bodies. The community business was a major component in a bid that saw Meltham reach the finals of ‘The Great British High Street Awards’ in 2014. Two of the founding Trustees have received accolades for their efforts from Locality at the House of Lords and was also a major driving force in a huge community project to deliver aid to Syrian refugees in 2015 which saw the Carlile Institute featured on ITV, The Guardian and BBC TV and radio. The project was also highly commended in the 2015 Examiner Community Project of the Year Award.
About Power to Change:
Started in 2015, Power to Change is an independent charitable trust endowed with £150 million from the Big Lottery Fund to grow community business in England. Over ten years, they will provide funding and support to help build many more successful and sustainable local community businesses across England.
Power to Change will provide funding and support to help build many more sustainable community businesses that have positive social, economic and environmental impact in local places.
About the Big Lottery Fund:
- The Big Lottery Fund supports the aspirations of people who want to make life better for their communities across the UK. We are responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised by the National Lottery and invest over £650 million a year in projects big and small in health, education, environment and charitable purposes.
- Since June 2004 we have awarded over £8 billion to projects that change the lives of millions of people. Every year we fund 13,000 small local projects tackling big social problems like poor mental health and homelessness.
- Since the National Lottery began in 1994, £34 billion has been raised and more than 450,000 grants awarded.
Press contacts:
Power to Change: Charlotte.Cassedanne {@} thepowertochange.org.uk
Carlile Institute: Richard Noon hashtagmeltham {@} hotmail.co.uk
Website: http://www.thepowertochange.org.uk/
Copyright Meltham Carlile Ltd 2020
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