50 signatures reached
To: Bolton Council
Reinstate Hibbert Elders Heating & Lighting Core funding
Please reinstate Hibbert Community Centre's core funding of £15,000 per year for 2017/18 for heating and lighting costs as without it, closure is a risk. This is a vital centre with over 230 members that has helped our community's vulnerable elderly people, provided support for women who have faced domestic abuse, and worked with the statutory agencies to reduce gang violence. The centre has relied on a grant from Bolton Council since 1997 and we have raised thousands for important project work within the community in the years since. This work is being jeopardised by this short-sighted decision.
Why is this important?
We, the ZADA elders, have been members of, and attending functions including our own coffee mornings at Hibbert Community Centre for many years now. All voluntary groups that use the centre raise their own funds for all their various youth and community activities. The only thing that we have relied on from Bolton Council since 1997 is our core costs which go towards heating, lighting and insurance costs. In late 2016, Bolton Council decided that it would stop funding these basic costs for our thriving community centre based in one of the most deprived areas in Britain.
As a result, it is making it harder for our elderly members to attend as frequently as they did given how the cold disproportionately affects the elderly and taking away a vital lifeline to challenge loneliness. Outside of summer, gloves and hats have had to be worn and this makes it harder to participate for so many.
