Door closes on FOCH bid for The Knoll

Despite a great deal of time and effort on our part, Friends of Cleethorpes Heritage are sorry to report that we have unfortunately been unsuccessful in our bid to take on The Knoll as a community heritage hub.Although North East Lincolnshire Council praised the work we have done so far to promote and showcase the heritage of Cleethorpes and acknowledged that “this should continue to reach out to as many of the current and future generations of the Borough as possible”, they felt that there was too high a risk attached to our proposal in terms of guaranteeing funding and long-term income generation to make the project sustainable.

Whilst we were confident that we could have brought in the necessary funding and that our passion for the project would have made it a success, our current modest resources mean that we are unable to provide assurances of significant sums of funding to kick start the venture. It is something of a chicken and egg situation. It is difficult to secure significant funding without having a long-term lease in place – this was one of the reasons why we were turned down by the Big Local - but the Council required funding in place before they would consider granting us the lease.

Naturally, we are very disappointed that our efforts have ultimately come to nothing, but being the eternally optimistic and passionate people that we are, we have accepted the decision and are already pursuing other opportunities.

As the Council’s letter says, our group “is well placed to continue to engage and promote the area’s heritage with the wider community, which is something that is clearly required across the Borough.”  We will therefore be looking to work in partnership with the Council, other community groups, local businesses and individuals to do just that.

We would like to thank everyone who supported us in our bid for The Knoll and we hope that the future tenants of this beautiful old building prove worthy of it.