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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. 

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

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

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 (

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

Julian Haywood Smith, Keith Beaumont, Malc olm Watson, Roger Roseboom, Eric Barnett, Charles Barrington, Margaret Wilson

Roger Roseboom, Chairman Bealings Village Hall Management Committee
Contact: playingfield@btinternet.com
See summary or chronicle of events.
Records of meetings are held on www.greatbealings.co.uk

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