Cheshire East Council is providing financial assistance to improve facilities at Lacey Green Pavilion.
Cllr Peter Raynes, Finance Portfolio Holder, agreed to give an award of £13,400 for the upgrade of the kitchen at Lacey Green Pavilion to aid its development as a community hub for the Lacey Green estate.
A recent Stronger Communities Review demonstrated that there was real enthusiasm and commitment from the voluntary, community and faith sector to get involved in making a difference. In this area however, there was a desperate need of some financial pump priming in order to assist in the development, build on the community spirit that exists and enable new opportunities to be created.
The Management Committee of the Pavilion are keen to update the kitchen area and make the community resource accessible to a wider range of people in the community.
Much external work has already taken place to make it look more inviting and to increase the security of the building. The outside has been painted by volunteers and grants have been secured to refurbish most elements, except for the kitchen and the painting of the main hall.
The works to the kitchen will enable this local facility, which has been open for the last 20 years, to run an over 60's lunch club, enable healthy eating sessions with parent and toddler groups and provide tuck shop facilities for a youth club. These are the immediate aims but the ambition is to be able to open this up to a much wider audience as the facility would be fit for purpose.
A second award of £100,000 for the refurbishment of Upton Priory Church in Macclesfield was also approved. It was reported that no community facilities currently existed for the residents of the Upton Priory Estate but that the planned development of the Upton Priory Church would enable these facilities to be created and further developed. Additional funding would need to be found but the £100,000, along with an additional £90,000 to be provided by other means, meant it would be eligible to receive additional match funding.
The Portfolio Holder confirmed that he was happy to agree on the basis that in neither case would there be an ongoing call on the Council's resources and that these were particularly unusual circumstances.
