Bookings for Main Hall, Committee
Room and Snooker Tel:
625277
2009 Annual Subscription
to John Belstead Sports Court offers discounted
hire charges at 1/3rd standard rate. Purchase
an "early-bird" annual subscription (before 1st
April 2009) at half the price and save even
more.
Application Forms and Bookings
http://bealings.ibooka.com/
or
07925181390
Biffaward shortlisted our Playingfield project for a
National Award - the award in the Recreation
Category went to Saffron Walden with their amazing
Skate Park.
Sponsor for Repairs: August 2008: Local
resident generously donates £5,000 towards repair work
necessitated by unprecented levels of torrential
rain which occurred late spring. With this funding we
have laid turf on the main plateau, to take the brunt of
future torrents. The sponsor is also supporting the
repairs to car park entrance.
Boules Piste: July 2008 With the help of
another grant from Peter Bellfield's SCC Locality Budget we
have also installed a Boules Piste on
the playingfield.
Grand
Opening: 5th
May 2008 Roger Roseboom, the Chairman
of Bealings Village Hall Trust, hosted the Grand Opening
of the John Belstead Playingfield and Sports Court.
The event began with a fun run with the participants sporting
commemorative T-shirts especially designed for the day.
Representatives of the major grant sponsors joined with the
Bealings residents with the Honourable Jill
Ganzoni cutting the ribbon for
the first Bealings Games in which Great Bealings were the
victors.
A good time was had by all.
Roger Roseboom paid tribute to
the contributions made by the major sponsoring
organisations
and welcomed their representatives on the
day: Reverend Canon Graham Hedger, for Biffaward,
Rural Action East, Suffolk Acre and The Suffolk
Foundation; Peter Miller of Suffolk Environmental
Trust; Victor Perez Marez of Viridor Credits; Peter
Bellfield, sponsor of Suffolk County Council's Locality
Budget; Christine Brain from Suffolk Coastal District
Council Grants.
Photo: Fun runners starting off
the grand opening sporting their special T- Shirts.
Finally, below is photo of the
Grand Opening of the new permissive footpath (from Gt. Bealings to
the playing field) on May 5th.
Photos by Malcolm
Watson
Roger Roseboom, Jenny Shaw & Jill Ganzoni preparing for the
Grand Opening
Authors
Jenny Shaw, Project Officer and Treasurer
Roger Roseboom,
Chairman Bealings Village Hall Management Committee
Contact:
playingfield@btinternet.com
John Belstead Playingfield Project - Completed 31
March 2008
Project Recap
Bealings Village Hall's ageing play equipment had
been deemed ‘unsafe’ under new Health and Safety rules and
most of the equipment had been removed.
The old swings were the only piece
of equipment which remained and the main sports field had
a serious slope with ageing goal posts the field and scrub was
fast encroaching on the space available.
With support from our parish councils and our county
councillor Peter Bellfield the project received enough funds
to carry out a feasibility study and effect a consultation
process. The result showed very strong support and
commitment within the Bealings communities.
In February 2006, Bealings Village Hall Trust embarked on
the major project to provide new play, sports and leisure
facilities by appointing a project team headed by local volunteer
Jenny Shaw. Soon after Giles Hill was appointed
as Landscape Architect to the project and the team
embarked on a major fundraising programme led by Chairman of the
Trust, Roger Roseboom. During these early months all the project
expenses were supported by local fundraising events and
contributions from the Bealings Parish Councils and SCC.
In May 2006, the project received its first great
fillip of a £35,000 donation from Lord Belstead’s
Charitable Trust towards the Multi-Sports Court. By July
2007, the design
for the refurbished playing field
had been approved by the community and planning approval
granted by SCDC. Our plans (photo) aimed to remodel
the playingfield to incorporate a central plateau for an
amenity space around which there would be equipment
for all ages: an Aerial Cableway for all ages, a Toddler
area with a wooden maze, separate Children's Play equipment
for the over 5's, an adult fitness trail, a multi-sports
court and safe pathways allowing disabled access to the
facilities. The overarching theme was for the equipment
to blend with the rural nature of the site and allow
for managed wild life areas.
Our funding plan was to apply to major grant
bodies such as the Big Lottery and
Biffaward. Applications of this type require evidence of a
rigorous business case and involve submissions at two
stages - the initial "gateway" approval process followed by more
detailed analysis when the final decision is made - this process
can take 12 months. So our implementation strategy was to
deliver some quick wins by applying to local funds for
smaller amounts. Once we had successfully received first
stage "gateway" approval from the major grant
bodies we were able to apply to local
bodies and were successful in receiving grants
from the Suffolk CC, Local Network Fund, SCDC Capital
Grant, Suffolk Foundation and Barclays Bank plc. These
allowed us to begin delivering to plan:
Stage
1: Thanks to the £7,000 grant from the Local
Network Fund, and a contribution from SCDC's Playspace
and Capital Funds we were able to deliver the first
piece of play equipment: Our Aerial Cableway was opened at 12
o'clock in April 2007. Photo: testing the cableway.
We also refurbished the old swings in line with new
regulations.
Stage 2: Biffaward awarded £45,454 to our project
in April 2007 and with another £10,000 from the Lord Belstead
Charitable Trust we were able to remodel the playingfield and
install toddler equipment and under-14s play area which was opened
in July 2007.
Photos: (Left & above) Under-14s equipment
Photos: (Below Left) Toddler Swings & Springers and
Maze.
Stage 3: With the £35,000 from Lord Belstead's
Charitable Trust we were able to proceed with the Multi-Sports
Court in the autumn and the facility was opened in November
2007 along with its on-line booking system
(
bealings.ibooka.com)
spearheaded by Julian Haywood Smith.
Additional grants of £2,000 SCDC Sports Fund and £3,000 SCDC
Capital Fund and £1,500 funds raised at local events provided the
necessary on-court equipment.
Photo: Games on the
Court - Boxing Day 2007.
Stage 4: Our application to the Big Lottery was to
allow us deliver the central Amenity Space, Trim trail equipment,
circular path/cycle-track, paved seating area, seats and waste
bins. We submitted our final application for £45,000 to the BIG
Lottery on 12th April 2007. These national funds are fiercely
sought after, only 20% of Lottery applicants are successful, and
although we got through the first round we heard in July 2007 that
we had failed at the final hurdle when the funds went to more needy
projects. Undaunted we revamped our fundraising plans and
funding of the final stage was achieved through another
£10,000 from the John Belstead Charitable Trust and £10,000
"completion" funds from Suffolk Environmental Trust. Suffolk
Foundation Trust granted us £1,000 towards the adult fitness trail
equipment. And to complete the funding we followed this
up with an appeal to local residents and received another £4,000.
By making adjustments to the way we delivered the final stage: we
applied for trees through the SCDC Parish Tree Fund, and used
volunteer effort where possible, people donated benches. We
also raised more funds through SCC and local sponsored events (Dog
Show, Bealings Got Talent, Curry and Spaghetti Evenings) and
received some matching funds from HSBC.
The final piece of work involved
replacing the perimeter fencing and this was all done by a
team of volunteers led by Julian Haywood Smith, Keith
Beaumont and Nigel Hall-Wright.
A host of volunteers also helped clear the field of debris.
Our implementation work is now complete and the grass seed is just
starting to peep through on the main plateau.
Thank you to our many supporters:
We have
named the Playing Field and Sports Court after John
Belstead our first benefactor and we are most
indebted to his sister, Jill Ganzoni for her
constant interest and support throughout the project. We
are pleased to say that Jill will be opening the Playing Field on
5th May 2008.
We are also very grateful for the excellent support we
received from: Wendy Jephcote of Suffolk Acre, Clare Nagle of
Rural Action East, Rupert Bragg of Suffolk Environmental Trust,
Alan Biddle at Suffolk Coastal District Council and Ivan Jowers our
local District Councillor and Peter Bellfield our County
Councillor all of whom gave us the courage to apply for
grants.
Also thanks to
volunteers: Ferial Evans for her excellent work in
producing our regular newsletters; Margaret Wilson
for her help and support as our link with the
Management Committee: Charles Barrington for his advice
during the early stages of grant applications. Last but not
least our local fundraising team led by local volunteer
Malcolm Watson whose unstinting efforts kept the
project in "working" funds throughout the project by
organising innovative and exciting events - we could not
have done this project without their
efforts.
Photo: Fundraising for the new play equipment brings out
the residents. Here they are
Under Starters Orders -
Sponsored Bike Ride 11th June 2007.
The project team meets once a month. The project
team continues to report to the Village Hall Management
Committee and is responsible for Health & Safety
matters in respect of the field and its
equipment.
Project Team
L to R - Julian Haywood Smith, Keith Beaumont,
Malc
olm Watson, Roger Roseboom, Eric
Barnett, Charles Barrington, Margaret Wilson
Missing from photo: Rick Kerry, Sally Johnson, Jim
Newbold, Ferial Evans, Nigel Hall-Wright and Jenny Shaw who was
behind the camera.
See summary or
chronicle of events.
Records of meetings are held
on www.greatbealings.co.uk
Newsletter #1
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#5