CAISTOR DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP

Caistor Development Partnership came about as a result of a series of public meetings held in Caistor Town Hall between October 2000 and February 2001.

At the February 2001 meeting the townspeople of Caistor voted unanimously for the following resolution:-

'That the residents of Caistor support the formation of a working group to promote the development of the town'.

As a consequence of this the Caistor Development Partnership was set up and now comprises 25 members representing all sections of the Caistor community including residents, business people, town councillors, district councillors, county councillor, schools, youth club, Caistor Society, Sports & Social Club, Police and The Methodist Church. The CDP now meets regularly on a monthly basis.

The first action of the CDP was to submit an expression of interest under the Market Towns Initiative to the Countryside Agency and as a result of that submission we received a letter from EMDA which suggested that there were 'issues identified in our application that the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) might be able to fund from one or other of their regeneration programmes'.

Having obtained a mandate from the people of Caistor, the CDP organised a Community Survey and forms were distributed to every household in the town. The results of the survey are available on the www.caistor.net web site but briefly the top 3 priorities were identified as:-

1. Encouraging the economic development of the town

2. Improving the appearance of the town

3. Reducing crime and vandalism

Following the survey the CDP has written and published a number of strategic documents as follows:-

1. 'A Strategy for Caistor' which spells out clearly what the CDP’s intentions are.

2. 'Caistor Economic Revival - Consultant's Brief'. A strategy for the economic revival of the town which has been approved and a study by the University of Lincoln is being funded by the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA).

In May 2001, Groundwork Lincolnshire (GWL) submitted a Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) on behalf of Caistor Development Partnership. This initial bid was unsuccessful but HLF was sufficiently interested in helping to revitalise Caistor that they offered a sum of money, up to £25,000, for GWL to engage a consultant to advise on a resubmission of the THI bid.

The CDP was involved in creating the brief for the THI Consultant who was appointed by Groundwork Lincolnshire in March 2002 to advise on the Heritage Lottery bid.

It is interesting to note that Heritage Lottery have appointed a monitoring officer to advise and monitor the second bid. The proposed THI area is located within the Caistor Conservation Area and includes 34 of the Grade II Listed Buildings in the town. The actual scope of the bid was agreed by the monitoring officer in October 2001 and includes 105 buildings in and around the Market Place. Four of these buildings have been identified as being critical to this project.

The second bid was put together in a very short timescale and was submitted to HLF at the end of May 2002. The total bid is for £2.47M and it is anticipated that this will result in a common fund total of £1.5M from which property owners can apply for grants to assist them with repairs, renovation and bringing vacant space back in to use. The level of grant will vary according to the type of work undertaken.

It is anticipated that funding for the THI bid will come from:-

- Heritage Lottery Fund

- East Midlands Development Agency

- European Regional Development Fund

- Landfill Tax (WREN)

- Lincolnshire County Council

- West Lindsey District Council

- Caistor Town Council

Groundwork Lincolnshire will be the 'lead' organisation for the THI bid and will be responsible for it's implementation and all the administration and the accounting arrangements associated with the project. WLDC will advise on all planning and conservation matters.

A project group has been set up which meets regularly on a monthy cycle to monitor progress and comprises representatives from:

- Caistor Development Partnership (CDP)

- Groundwork Lincolnshire (GWL)

- East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA)

- West Lindsey District Council (WLDC)

- Lincolnshire Enterprise (LE)

In June 2002 Groundwork Lincolnshire with the assistance of the project group organised an Exhibition and Consultation day in Caistor Town Hall which related specifically to the Townscape Heritage Lottery bid. The consultant engaged by GWL organised a slide presentation in the evening followed by questions from members of the public. This was a very successful event and was attended by many of the townspeople and guests interested in the revitalisation of Caistor.

Further meetings took place with Heritage Lottery and the monitoring officer in September 2002 when it was confirmed that we have received notification from the Heritage Lottery Fund which has confirmed that the HLF Trustees have agreed to offer the Caistor Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) project a stage one pass. The offer is not a formal offer of grant at this stage and will be subject to receipt of a satisfactory stage 2 submission which will need to be agreed by the Trustees. HLF have indicated that a grant of up to £750,000 may be available for this scheme on the basis that it comprises no more than 50% of the value of the common fund which will hopefully be of the order of £1.5M. This is exciting news for Caistor and the partnership. There is still a lot to be done to secure the matched funding and to meet the other requirements of the Heritage Lottery Fund. We now need to work together with our partners towards securing a successful stage 2 submission in 2003.

PLEASE NOTE: Copies of all our documents are available on the www.caistor.net web site.