Watch the Big Lottery Fund’s biggest live surprise to one Welsh community worth £2 million!

14 Jun 2017 11:49 AM

Watch the incredible reaction of the Brymbo community as Big Lottery Fund Wales Director, John Rose, surprises them with the news that they have received a nearly-£2 million grant.

Brymbo Heritage Group in Wrexham are one of five organisations in Wales to receive a share of £6,838,324 through the Big Lottery Fund’s Create Your Space programme. (For details of all awards, please click here).

The awards have been made possible thanks to National Lottery ticket sales as well as from money through Dormant Accounts (Dormant Accounts funding comes from bank and building society accounts that have not been used in over 15 years).

They receive £1,996,483 to work in communities in the hills to the West of Wrexham town centre, including the electoral wards of Brymbo, Bryn Cefn and Gwenfro. The project will be delivered through “area” projects, improving physical spaces and the ways that they are used, and “connections” projects that will bring about changes in the ways people view and use spaces, and to develop them further.

Nick Amyes, the Trust’s Chair, said: “Getting this grant is absolutely fantastic! We’ve been working with residents for years to find ways of celebrating our proud industrial heritage. For us, it’s all about reconnecting people with the spaces our community grew from - Brymbo’s former iron and steelworks and the collieries and railway beds that surround it.

“This award from Create Your Space means we can now work with residents to join forces and open up large parts of these ex-industrial landscapes for us all to use as parkland, as new walking routes, as community gardens, and as places to learn about climate change, and biodiversity: People working with spaces, spaces working for people.”
In Rhondda Cynon Taff, Interlink RCT receive £1,016,881 to work in partnership with communities based in the Upper Rhondda Fawr area to develop new ways of connecting people and their natural environment, managing natural resources and local spaces for health, wellbeing, training and employment

Welcoming the grant, Simon James of Interlink RCT, said: “The community have worked over the last 4 years to make a success of the Welcome to Our Woods project (supported through the Big Lottery Fund Community Voice programme). We are so excited to be working with all our partners on the Create Your Space Lottery programme, it gives us an amazing and unique opportunity to work together to build on the incredibly rich community, culture and landscape in the Upper Rhondda.

“It will help us to deliver our vision of a cooperative community where it is a basic human right for everyone to have access to outdoor spaces, making full use of outdoor spaces to improve health and wellbeing, encourage visitors and create local employment opportunities.”

Other awards go to Duffryn Community Link in Newport who receive £1,453,861, Menter Mon in Anglesey who receive £1,098,000, and Ynysybwl Regeneration Partnership in Rhondda Cynon Taf who receive £1,273,099.

The programme will help support communities to come up with their own vision and plan for conserving and enhancing their local natural environment in a way which meets their needs and those of future generations. This is in line with the goals outlined in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act and the Environment (Wales) Act which have the aim of bringing about multiple benefits to improve the social, economic, and cultural well-being of Wales.

The Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths said: “I welcome this funding of nearly £7m for five community bodies under the innovative Create Your Space scheme. 

“These projects will enable communities to value and reconnect with their local environment.  This is a great opportunity to enhance local landscapes for the well-being of people, local habitats and biodiversity and the local economy.  The seven-year timeframe will enable the projects to become embedded into their areas for current and future generations”

Rita Singh, Big Lottery Fund Wales Committee member, said: “The Create Your Space programme will support Welsh communities to become stronger and more engaged with their local environment by helping them to achieve a unique vision that will benefit them and future generations.

“By supporting communities to transform their local natural environments in their own vision we are delivering on our promise to use National Lottery funding to regenerate and revitalise communities, and to leave a lasting legacy.”

For The Big Lottery Fund’s latest funding and programme news, please sign up to its newsletter at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/ebulletinwales

Further Information:

Alexander Davies - Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 029 2067 8236
Public Enquiries Line: 0300 123 0735   |   Textphone:  0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available at: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Follow Big Lottery Fund Wales on Twitter: www.twitter.com/biglotterywales
Find Big Lottery Fund Wales on Facebook: www.facebook.com/biglotteryfundwales

Notes to Editors:

• 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 500,000 grants awarded.
• The Create Your Space programme is funded jointly by the Big Lottery Fund as well as Dormant Accounts money (Dormant Accounts funding comes from bank and building society accounts that have not been used in over 15 years). The Dormant Accounts money will be spent in line with directions issued by Welsh Ministers on its use for community based projects to tackle the causes and consequences of climate change.