Award recipients
Little Yeldham Village Hall
Thanks to one of our Community Infrastructure Grants, the welcome at Little Yeldham village hall just got even warmer!
Last year, we awarded the hall £9,000 from a UK Prosperty Fund allocated pot of money, intended to help make publicly accessible buildings more sustainable. The grant was to install a new infrared thermal heating system, as seen in the photo.
The works were completed in November 2024 and have immediately made the old building more toasty - it was not unheard of before to have to wear a coat indoors during winter!
The lovely hall is a valuable community asset, hosting events all year round and offering a space for hire.
The village hall and open space are undergoing other grant-funded works to make wide-ranging improvements, including better disabled access, playground equipment and loft insulation.
The works have already contributed to an increase in hall hire over the last three months but, as Parish Councillor Mary Pearce says, "we are not complacent, as our Village Hall is, in real terms, a very old lady and as such is demanding in what is required to keep her on her toes."
Hatfield Peverel Village Hall
Lucky locals in Hatfield Peverel enjoy a true community hub in their village hall: with a buzzing, affordably priced café and frankly dazzling number of activities, from Latin dance to dog training to bingo, you wonder how it could possibly be improved.
The answer is: new windows! Thanks to one of our Community Infrastructure Grants of £4,859, which was matched by funding from the Village Hall Management Team, the hall now has all triple glazed windows and is much cosier as a result.
Local mums Ellie, Lorna, Sophie and Charlotte were stopping by for a coffee after the school run. They are big fans and regular visitors to the village hall. Sophie said the new window had made a noticeable difference to the temperature inside: "Now you mention it, I would normally still have had my coat on!"
The management team first looked at upgrading the old wooden framed single glazed windows in the ground level rooms in 2022. The draughty windows were having a big impact on energy bills, which were getting unaffordable. They were beyond repair and had to be replaced. Now the team looks forward to lower bills and reduced carbon emissions.
The team had already replaced windows in the most regularly used rooms, and the grant helped them to finish the job, with 15 more.
Braintree Cricket Club
Braintree Cricket Club has used its grant to install solar panels on the roof of its pavilion, along with a battery to store the captured energy. The panels will ensure a greener, carbon neutral source of energy to heat the players’ showers and run the bar. It will also mean that the grid will buy energy back, providing some income. And the club is paying it forward: contractors Redwood are now offering club members discounted solar panels on their own homes.
The carbon free, cost-free electricity also means that the club will be able to keep subs low for its growing cohort of members.
Club Chairman Jamie Foyster explained why they decided to apply: “Our energy bills soared to £1800 a year – and that’s really just for April to September, our playing season.
“With the panels, we are expecting not to pay another penny on our electric bill. To achieve that without the panels we would have to sell £3600 worth of drinks in the bar!”
Great Notley Parish Council
Great Notley Parish Council was awarded a Community Infrastructure Grant to replace ten of its street lamps with energy efficient LED lanterns. These are all in place now and residents are already benefiting from the carbon emission busting lighting!
The parish council say they also expect to see better lighting as a result, which should brighten the pathways for residents, making them feel safer to use.
The lights are positioned at various points around the village, lighting footpaths and outdoor seating.
The Community Infrastructure Grants Fund received £100,000 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Feering Community Centre
Feering Community Centre is one of ten organisations that received a carbon-busting Community Infrastructure Grant from us this year.
The centre, which is joint owned by the parish council, local school and church diocese, received a grant to replace its old fluorescent light panels with more efficient LED light panels, resulting in a huge carbon saving of approximately 80%.
The new panels shine even brighter than the old ones and, as well as being environmentally friendly, will also bring energy costs down for the centre.
This is great news for the whole Feering community, whether it’s the babies and toddlers at their weekly group, the film buffs at the cinema club or the ping pong dons of the table tennis club!
The LED lighting is the latest carbon saving project from Feering Parish Council, which has already installed solar panels to their roof space and replaced windows and the boiler. They plan to use further grant funding as available for replacing further windows and doors.
The Community Infrastructure Grants Fund received £100,000 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Birdbrook Community House Trust
Birdbrook Community House Trust received one of our Community Infrastructure Grants this summer, and has wasted no time in getting 54 insulated windows installed.
Steve Filbey, a trustee and former chairman of the trust, put forward the suggestion, as the building’s energy bills had hit an unsustainable £600 per month.
Incredibly, Steve’s own father-in-law had secured the grant to put in the old windows 30 years earlier! These had served their time and were allowing precious heat to escape.
Birdbrook Community House is a key asset, bringing this beautiful village together under its thatched roof for many different purposes: it is home of the Birdbrook Bowls Club, provides a warm space in winter, hosts yoga classes and parish council meetings – and more. The grant will help it to continue to serve the community.
Steve said:
“It’s all about doing what we can to save money. I’m so impressed by the price and the look of the new windows, and they are predicted to save 50% on our bills.”
The Community Infrastructure Grants Fund received £100,000 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Witham Town Football and Social Club
Witham Town Football and Social Club is so much more than a football club – it’s a real community asset too.
Opening its doors to local people for all kinds of activities from free cardiac testing to baby sensory sessions, the club also boasts a very reasonably priced bar!
And now, thanks to one of our Community Infrastructure Grants, they have just installed solar panels to their roof, making them greener and more sustainable.
Gavin Taylor is the club’s grant liaison officer, though he says: “There are so many people who volunteer here, and we all do everything!”. He explains why they decided to apply: “It’s all about community for us. We don't make a profit, and we do everything that we can ourselves, like washing the kits. Everything we do here, apart from the football, is about being able to keep costs low for the community using our premises.
Cutting carbon emissions was a consideration too, and the panels will do that. Gavin is personally motivated to make the club more sustainable: “My next big challenge is an irrigation system. If we get agreement, we could pull 20,000 litres from the water table a day to water our pitch, so we wouldn’t be taking water from a reservoir to water our pitch through the summer. I want to plant some trees too.”
The club’s green ambitions and community focus impressed the solar panel installers, Greenscape too. Gavin says: “Greenscape gave us special pricing because we are a not-for-profit club and because they just believe in what we're doing here”.
