By Haverstoe Park to get a new heart
Plans are coming to fruition for an exciting new community facility at the heart of a popular Cleethorpes park.
Louise Deane is spearheading a bid to refurbish Haverstoe pavilion and open a cafe, community room (for hire in the future) and toilets with baby and adult changing, plus re-introduce sports changing rooms – and hopes to have some of the facilities open in time for October half-term.
North East Lincolnshire Council has transferred the facility to a non-profit Community Interest Company WaNo-WaNo (Waste Not, Want Not) set up by Louise, on condition it carries out full repairs.
“We are trying to get it ship-shape to open,” said Louise, who has one daughter. “It’s been wonderful to meet so many people who are interested in our progress and have been stopping by to wish us well.”
She has received grants to repair the windows, buy a coffee machine and pay solicitors and architects costs, plus crowdfunding cash, and local people have been generous with their donations after appeals on the Haverstoe Heroes Facebook page for items such as paint, tea towels and spoons.
“It’s mostly community funded,” she said.
In the last couple of days a car boot sale raised £46 and the local Liberal Democrats presented a cheque for £400.
The most recent ‘wish list’ included a tradesperson to sort out a drain, a fridge, freezer and “money to purchase take away bits and bobs such as cups, paper bags, cardboard containers and our opening stock”.
“We’re putting a couple of funding bids together which will hopefully bring in some much-needed funds to help us achieve our goals quickly,” Louise said.
“In more of a positive note, our painting volunteers are doing a great job and gifted leftover paints have been an enormous help. The interior of the building looks so much brighter with a lick of paint.
“We’re still waiting for the electrics to be fixed for the cafe and community room as we have no lights in there but, hopefully, they will be sorted soon.
“As soon as the drainage and wet wall are sorted, we can crack on with getting the kitchen plastered, painted and ready for opening.”
She added: “We’re hoping to be open by October half-term but this will all depend on funding and the availability of tradespeople to get everything done (assuming we don’t come across any more problems) – the list of jobs keeps growing!
“With all the awesome support that we’re getting, we’re confident that we’ll hit our targets.”
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