It is with great pleasure that we can finally announce the Heritage Fund Lottery application made back in August has been successful!
A grant of £249,362.00, has been awarded to Bude-Stratton Town Council for The Compass Point Project.
This has been a cumulation of a year’s worth of fundraising and work, starting with the crowdfunding campaign which had an incredible response from our community and raised an amazing £60,055 in just 7 weeks! This really set us on our way and enabled us to push on with the project. Thank you to everyone who was involved.
Cornwall Council granted £50,000 towards the project and Bude-Stratton Town Council granted £25,000. With nearly £250,000 left to raise, Bude-Stratton Town Council undertook the task of applying to The National Lottery Heritage Fund a highly competitive grant scheme which focuses on heritage projects and the community benefits they can offer.
The decision to award the grant to The Compass Point Project, now means we have all the funds required to undertake the project and anticipate being on site in April 2022, to start dismantling the tower. We are exceptionally grateful to the National Lottery Players for enabling this project to take place.
Alongside the capital programme we have an extensive set of community projects which will be starting in earnest, the main focus will be to raise awareness and engage local people, young people and low-income families in the heritage of the tower and the current threat from coastal erosion and the climate emergency.
There will be opportunities for the community to be involved in major aspects of the project including the dismantle and rebuild of the tower, we can’t wait to get started and get the community involved in this once in a lifetime project. We will be announcing the programme of events very shortly!
Cllr Martyn Alvey, Portfolio holder for Environment and Climate change said: ‘Cornwall Council is delighted to be part of this community-led project to safeguard the Storm Tower from the encroaching cliff edge. In 2019 Cornwall Council declared a climate emergency and one of the many challenges that we face is the effect of climate and coastal change on our historic environment.
After saving countless lives at sea over its 180-year history, the Storm Tower is now to be saved from the sea by the community and we are very grateful to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and all those who contributed to the appeal. In many ways this project highlights the need for a wider conversation amongst communities over heritage at risk, ensuring that we understand adaptation and the challenges that this will place on all of us.
We hope that the activities planned by Bude Stratton Town Council that will be running alongside the physical relocation of the Storm Tower will help kick start this conversation.
Mayor of Bude-Stratton Cllr Amanda Tame said: I couldn’t be happier to hear the fantastic news that the grant was awarded, the amount of support from the community this year show just how well-loved and appreciated this local piece of our history is.
Our Project & Strategy Manager has put untold amount of work to get this project realised and this essential funding in place, so huge thanks to Frankie, and to everyone that has donated to the project which let us Save Our Storm Tower!
Cllr Peter LaBroy said: This award means that we can finally get to work Saving Our Stormtower. I know it seems to have taken ages to get this far, but there has been a huge amount of work going on in the background over the last year. I believe the key to winning our bid for funding was the successful Crowdfunder earlier in the year. Everyone that donated money to our project should feel proud of themselves. The money given demonstrated such a clear indication of public support, the Lottery had to listen. Every one of you deserves a big thank you!
