Big Lottery Fund: Living landmarks put on the map with the lottery multi-billions

Big Lottery Fund: Living landmarks put on the map with the lottery multi-billions

Big Lottery Fund: Living landmarks put on the map with the lottery multi-billions

Three schemes in Cornwall, Scotland and Northern Ireland are celebrating their share in a multi-million pound investment by the Big Lottery Fund today to become Living Landmarks.

The three successful projects have in total been awarded just over £70 million by the Fund.

Kerrier District Council’s Cornwall’s Heartlands has been awarded £22.3million; The Greater East Belfast Partnership’s Connswater Community Greenway has been awarded £23.5million, and Falkirk Council’s The Helix has been awarded £25million.

Heartland is a community-led vision to transform Cornwall’s most derelict urban area into a truly inspirational cultural landscape. Heartlands will transform 7.5 hectares of former mining land into a World Heritage Site and beautiful new parkland. The site will include formal gardens, exciting play-space, performance space for events for over 4,000 people and new cycle links to local trails. Heartlands will include stunning new public art with a range of water features, sculpture and contemporary architecture directly complementing the Grade 2* Listed Robinson’s Shaft mine complex.

Kerrier District Council Portfolio Holder for Economy & Regeneration, Councillor Carolyn Rule, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Heartlands has been awarded the Living Landmarks grant, it is testimony to the passion for the project locally and a real belief in ensuring the future prosperity of the area. Heartlands will provide such a range of services in a beautiful new landscape, and the World Heritage Site setting will greatly enhance local pride – we are sure that this will now be the catalyst for future growth and prosperity for the Camborne-Pool-Redruth area.”

Greater East Belfast Partnership will use the grant to connect 379 acres of public open space, build 43 bridges and create 19kms of cycle and walkways. The project will benefit more than 40,800 people living in the area, improving the living environment and providing opportunities for leisure, exercise, recreation and supporting healthier lifestyles.
The £23.5 million grant will also be used to develop a 9km linear park through east Belfast, following the course of the Connswater, Knock and Loop rivers, connecting people and places from Castlereagh Hills to Belfast Lough.

Sammy Douglas from the Greater East Belfast Partnership said: “Everyone across Northern Ireland is absolutely delighted in getting this vote of confidence from the Lottery to provide new opportunities for our communities through the development of the Connswater Community Greenway which will turn the rivers and open spaces into community assets and provide a living landmark for our children.”

The Helix project will transform over 300 hectares of unused urban scrub into an environmental resource for the thousands of people living in Falkirk and across Central Scotland. The finished project will see:

  • Over a quarter of a million new trees on the site
  • 34 kilometres of paths and cycle tracks
  • A new section of canal linking and extending the Forth and Clyde Canal into the Forth Estuary
  • The creation of the outstanding 30 metre high sculpture, ‘Kelpie’

Falkirk Council Leader, Councillor Linda Gow, said: “The Helix is a creation of our communities – their thoughts and ideas as well as their aspirations were all included in the project plans and we will continue consult our communities as the Helix takes shape in the coming years.

“The bid couldn’t have succeeded without the amazing vision of the Falkirk people and we wish to thank the many individuals, groups and organisations who have supported us over the past few years and helped to make the Helix one of the most exciting environmental developments in the UK.”

Sir Clive Booth, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund, said: “After lots of hard work from the projects and some extremely tough decisions taken by the Living Landmarks committee, we are delighted to announce the three successful initiatives. I’m looking forward to seeing these truly ground-breaking projects come to life, capturing the imagination of the surrounding communities and individuals across the country.”

The aim of the Living Landmarks programme is to provide funding of up to £25 million to create major new capital projects that transform, revitalise and regenerate their communities. In August 2006, 23 projects made it onto the final Living Landmarks shortlist and were each awarded up to £250,000 to develop their proposals, leaving them much better placed to take their schemes further.

Projects that applied were given extensive scrutiny by the Living Landmarks Committee, which included experts in the areas of architecture and regeneration, and have substantial professional experience of large-scale capital projects.

In this extremely competitive funding programme the three projects were selected from a total of 313 initial applicants.

An even bigger grant from the Big Lottery Fund of up to £50 million is to be decided in December as part of The People’s £50 Million contest. Four projects will be screened on ITV1 during the week commencing 3rd December, before being put to the public vote to decide which project wins the cash. In the running are Black Country as Urban Park; The Edge at the Eden Project; Sherwood: The Living Legend; and Sustrans’ Connect2. Further details can be found at www.thepeoples50million.org.uk. [ITV always reserves the right to change its programme schedules].

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to Editors

  • The Big Lottery Fund rolls out close to £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.
  • The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
  • Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to Good Causes. As a result, over £20 billion has now been raised and more than 280,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.