Lottery grants available for community buildings

Wednesday November 8th 2006

Grants of up to £50,000 are available from The Big Lottery Fund for refurbishing community buildings – including church halls – across Northern Ireland.

Under the Fund’s Improving Community Buildings programme community organisations can to apply for grants of between £25,000 and £50,000 to refurbish or modernise venues such as community halls and centres to make them more available to local people. The programme will award approximately 100 grants.

Walter Rader, the Big Lottery Fund’s Northern Ireland Director said: “This new programme will make grants available to improve those buildings that are used for community activity and house a range of services that meet local people’s needs. These buildings are often the heart of a community, bringing people together and promoting increased community participation.”

Lottery cash will be available to projects for capital work to extend, refurbish, modernise or convert buildings, to buy fixtures and fittings linked to the project and all the professional and legal fees associated with the application.

The total cost of the project must not be more than £75,000 and all permission relating to planning and building must be in place before organisations submit an application. The deadline for applications is 24 May 2007.

For further information visit the Big Lottery Fund website and click on Northern Ireland.