Tag: Heart of Newhaven

Heart of Newhaven: December newsletter

Welcome to your December newsletter.

Since the last newsletter, your Board of Trustees and their many volunteer consultants and helpers have been busy working on various projects, as we continue to spend most of our lives online. Hopefully by now you have read about Newhaven Neighbours, Newhaven Sings and Newhaven Lights Up.

The board members have been joined by around three dozen active volunteers to bring these projects to fruition as examples of how we can bring the community together under the Heart of Newhaven umbrella as we continue to work towards acquisition of Victoria Primary School.

However we do have some sad news to share with you. 

We have to report the death of Joan Davidson. Joan was instrumental in helping to launch the Heart of Newhaven Community. Present at the first public meeting at Victoria Primary School in 2018 she preserved the charts produced that night of what was later called “Blue-Sky Thinking”. She introduced them with great enthusiasm when the interim Steering Committee was set up later that year and helped plan the very first meeting.  

Joan continued as a member of the Steering Group progressing the plans and helping to define the area of benefit but then sadly had to step back through illness.  Despite that, she never lost her interest or failed to give her support.  

At the outset she was interviewed for a short video which can be viewed at online where her ideas are recorded.  We will miss her but with gratitude for helping to ‘get the show on the road’! 

In our last newsletter we told you about Newhaven Neighbours.

Many of you answered the call and are now working together with one of our partners, Pilmeny Development Project to help support the isolated and vulnerable within the community.

Thank you all for your support. Thanks to you, Newhaven neighbours are receiving support in all manner of ways. There is always room for more of course, so it’s never too late to sign up to help out.  

Sign Up here.

Following on from Newhaven Neighbours, we have been working on Newhaven Sings Auld Lang Syne in collaboration with several local choirs and individual singers.

Perhaps you have already recorded your contribution but if you haven’t, don’t be bashful. It’s simple to do and will provide such pleasure. The deadline to send in your recording has been extended till Saturday 19th TODAY), so there’s no excuse! All the instructions are on the website.

Hot on the heels of Newhaven Sings, came Newhaven Lights Up, created in collaboration with local artist Johnathan Elders and with help from Men’s Shed.

You may have seen the delightful light boxes on the railings round Victoria Primary School. Help light up Newhaven by creating your own window display. Instructions for this are also on the website.

So although it may seem that little is happening on the wider front of the purchase – look out for more news on that front in the spring – everyone is still working hard behind the scenes.

If you would like to join in and help, or have any ideas for projects you would like to discuss, do get in touch with our volunteering team or any of the trustees via the website.

Don’t forget to check the website too, for updates of all kinds and regular blogs, including from our Chairman, Rodney Matthews View From the Chair 

Christmas is only a few days away and New Year of course follows closely after.

May we wish you and yours a happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year. Remember to bring it in by playing Auld Lang Syne!

Heart of Newhaven

Lighting up Newhaven

Have you started decorating your windows for Christmas?

Hopefully by now you’ve seen our latest project – Newhaven Lights Up.

We want to create a trail of decorated, “stained glass” windows throughout the area.

A part of Glasgow created some splendid decorated windows around Halloween, and various places across the world are doing something similar at the moment as well.

Edinburgh of course has already switched on some Christmas lights. Let’s help Newhaven compete!

If you haven’t seen it yet, head to our website and check out the wonderful example
supplied by local artist Johnathan Elders. Johnathan gives simple instructions and materials are easily obtainable from local shops or online (see below).

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎

Let’s light up Newhaven and share the new sense of hope that the news of the Covid vaccines have brought in the run-up to Christmas.

Men’s Shed have also been helping, by creating light boxes where you can see designs hanging on the railings of Victoria Primary School.

Don’t forget to let us know that you’re participating!

Simply press the button on the web page and email us your photos and location to be included in a trail. 

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎

Newhaven-Windows-1Download

Heart of Newhaven: Now what?

NOW WHAT?

Both words are important in answering that question.

This 20 day Update is always about where we are now. It is not about where we hope to be one day when the keys are delivered and, like any prospective purchaser, we move in to see what state the previous owner has left us to clear up before we can move our own things in.

Don’t worry: that is not being neglected, but it would be boring to describe all the steps that are being taken to get us to that point. You can safely leave the tedious things to the SCIO board, who will make sure all the necessary tasks are done in the right way.
There are much more exciting things to share now, not least because we know that moving-in day could be around a year away.

So what? What about now? What can you be expected to do other than to wait patiently? Is there a child in your house – or can you imagine a child after being cooped up with nothing to do – saying, “I’m bored! I don’t know what to do.” Well be bored no longer: There is something to do. It really will make a difference to the future and it will make it better.

There are two things that fit together:
What troubles you as you cope with Covid 19?
What ideas do you have that are worth sharing in order to help others cope?

As simple as that. Here is how we propose to match the need with the thought. It’s about sharing, which is the hallmark of community.

This Community, as you know by now, has a HEART. ❤️

Not merely a lot of boxes called houses or flats, in which we all keep ourselves to ourselves and suffer in silence.

We are about to launch an interactive programme of questions and suggestions, ideas and activities, encouraging you to become involved NOW with other people like you, helping each other create a better normal around our three themes you may know by heart:

Well-Being
Learning & Enterprise
Culture & Heritage

Health Business Leisure Sport Puzzles Gardening Entertainment Advice

You can add to the list which is as long as you want to make it, because above all it is about YOU – which is US, ALL TOGETHER, helping each other.

Invite your friends to join in as well. Look out for details about to appear on our website and social media channels.

And don’t forget:   if you have not already responded to the invitation to become a member of our Charity Heart of Newhaven Community SCIO making all this possible, do that NOW too, using the link here and following instructions.

Also keep checking the website and socials!
In another 20 days we’ll tell you more precisely what we are going to do next.
 
Rodney Matthews
Chair and Vision Facilitator
The Heart of Newhaven Community

Be sure to sign up to our newsletters at www.heartofnewhaven.co.uk

There’s so many ways you can get involved with the project and we’d love to have as many of you on board as possible!

Heart of Newhaven’s on the box!

An STV item about our plans went out on the 6 O’Clock news bulletin on Friday (11th September).  It included an on-site interview filmed outside Victoria primary School and was very upbeat.

Please pass the word around so that those who haven’t seen it can watch it on whatever catch-up services they have available.

We need you! Now the Hard Work Begins !

Anyone under the impression that it’s all over bar the shouting must think again. We’ve barely started!

In my last Update I was delighted to confirm that the City of Edinburgh Council had agreed to our request for the Community Asset Transfer of Victoria Primary School. But that word request is crucial. Without the Council’s agreement under the Community Empowerment (2015) Scotland Act no one could do anything.

Now no one can prevent us succeeding unless we ourselves fail – and we certainly don’t intend to fail. The important word here is WE because that includes YOU.

Why has the Council granted our request? The official statement on their website says:The community benefit is substantial compared to the value of the asset.The request will make a significant positive contribution to The City of Edinburgh Council’s aspirations and values.

We can now reveal “the value of the asset” – £785,000. But the Council can’t give it away. They need money from its sale to build the new school in Western Harbour. However, before they could put it on the open market they were required by the 2015 Act to offer it first to “the community”.

If we could show we would use it to meet their aims they would give us a discount. So they reduced the price by £85,000. 

The £700,000 we will pay will help build the best Primary School in the Edinburgh whilst we go on to create Scotland’s first specifically dedicated Multigenerational Community Hub. That should make YOU feel very proudand very determined to succeed in the huge challenge ahead. 
We’ve already started fundraising. We had to begin our Business Plan long before we succeeded in our CAT application – and before the challenge of a global pandemic.

Our charity, The Heart of Newhaven Community SCIO, has already applied to the Scottish Land Fund for the entire cost of purchase and fees. This Fund is provided by the Scottish Government to make grants for exactly the kind of thing we are doing.

But it is not a bottomless purse and there are many applications. We will know the degree of our success before the end of November but in addition to buying the site we need money for changes – including a lift to make the imaginative Heritage Suite more accessible. 

We are working NOW so that if by next March the purchase is complete, an arrangement can be made for the children to continue to use it until their new school is ready.

Every stage needs planning, so we are preparing ways for the Heart of Newhaven Community to grow together, supporting each other to create that Better Normal that is going to characterise life after Covid19.

You will shortly receive a personal invitation to become closely associated as a MEMBER of our dedicated SCIO SC04419.  But you needn’t even wait for that.
A growing number of people are volunteering and asking “Is there anything I can do now?” You won’t be left waiting for long for an answer!

In fact, you could answer the question for yourself and tell us what you would like to do. Look at our developing website heartofnewhaven.co.uk to get a bright idea and tell us what you think.

Rodney Matthews

Chair and Vision Facilitator, The Heart of Newhaven Community

Heart of Newhaven: We’ve Done It!

We have an announcement to make! WE’VE DONE IT!



Important Announcement

The City of Edinburgh Council has officially approved the Application by The Heart of Newhaven Community for the acquisition of Victoria Primary School by Community Asset Transfer.

The necessary contract is about to be drawn up for the whole site to be owned by our registered charity on behalf of the Newhaven Community.

I hope we’ve got to you first with this wonderful news, but the speed of the modern media bandwagon is such that you may well have heard this somewhere else already! However the news is still wonderful.

The contract with CEC will happen no later than 31st March 2021, and will include a clause providing lease-back to the Council until the new school being built in Western Harbour is ready for occupation.

When we take possession of this “Asset”, the Anchor Building will primarily house assessed and much needed nursery care and the whole site developed according to the imaginative plans of The Heart of Newhaven Community that have now been approved. 

These include the layout of the Victorian Building to house a comprehensive heritage suite in which we hope Newhaven Heritage and other organisations devoted to interpreting local history will have a share and include a Victorian Schoolroom and Wee Museum. 

At the beginning of last year we launched The Heart of Newhaven Community when it was clear that a wish to turn the school into an enhanced museum did not qualify to meet Council requirements for such a transfer.

The Council looked for an organisation that would represent the interests of what is technically called “the area of benefit”, which embraces the increasing population of Newhaven far greater than the traditional village: we know how big because we have delivered over 7,000 postcards to every household and business. 

The Council is required to address many social needs, from the youngest to the oldest and including the marginalised. From the outset we consulted widely and produced a Business Plan with local partners, organisations and charities, to help meet the Council’s obligatory targets. 

In the last Update I indicated that the Councillors representing the Wards in our catchment area unanimously approved our plans and recommended to the Policy and Sustainability Committee that our Application be approved. That was done at a meeting held on 20thAugust. 

Well done and thank you to everyone for helping get this Application across the line.

The next stage, for which we are prepared, is to apply to the Scottish Land Fund for a major grant to help our capital commitment.

SLF has already awarded funding that enabled us to employ a professional Business Consultant, SKS Scotland, to draw up a Business Plan that would be sustainable even in the event of the kind of challenge we are now meeting because of Covid 19.

We have now demonstrated that our figures are still viable over the next five years. But the SLF also need to know that what we are proposing is supported not merely by key interest groups but by the whole community across the entire “area of benefit”.

That is why it is important to increase the number of people prepared to sign up to say, “Yes please, this is what we need for the future”. 

The key is the development of a vibrant Community Hub, or as we put it, the beating Heart of Newhaven Community.

Please keep building up numbers by spreading the word of success, developing plans for a Better Normal with an emphasis on care within the community leading to the well-being of all, and especially those most in need.

And continue to volunteer your own services – some particular expertise or flair, a bit of time, an idea you think will help, either now or at some stage in the future as plans develop.

This is your Community. You are included. 

The first task is accomplished and the next beginning. The show is on the road.It will be as good as you make it.

RODNEY MATTHEWS

Chair and Vision Facilitator, 

The Heart of Newhaven Community

Success for Heart of Newhaven initiative

Well done! We are pleased to announce that our plans for the acquisition of Victoria Primary School are on target, thanks to your help.

Critical Meeting

Last week, we appeared before local Councillors on what is called a Community Asset Transfer Stage Two Panel. It was confirmed there that ours is the only application they are considering.

We mounted a sophisticated presentation using a wide range of colourful photographs and graphs, with critical links to an impressive number of local groups from professional firms to key charities, all involved in our three interconnected intergenerational themes that some of you now know off by heart:

Culture & Heritage
Learning & Enterprise
Well-being in the Community

We passed the test!

We demonstrated both the viability of our long term Business Plan and that what we propose is in the interests of the whole community, by honestly answering questions put to us by the various councillors.

Crucially important was to demonstrate how Well-being has, during “lock-down”, embraced the other two themes.

Learning & Enterprise is attracting novel ideas of helping each other face an uncertain future that with imagination has great opportunities for innovation, including awareness of environmental challenges.

Culture & Heritage has a key part too. The iconic Victorian Building will not be mothballed or converted into flats after 176 years of history but will tell the story of Newhaven over the past 500 years while looking confidently forward, using imaginative interactive techniques.

The modern Anchor Building will primarily meet the urgent need for nursery care. We expect that other compatible enterprises might well be accommodated in a flexible use of the space. The surrounding attractive garden and playground areas will help showcase this as the beating Heart of Newhaven Community.

The Panel was impressed and we have been encouraged to move forward with our plans.

And you have helped: either because you were already part of the Heart of Newhaven Community ❤️ or because through our recent postcard delivery you have just joined us, boosting support.

Keep the numbers growing. Representation of the whole community across what is technically called “the area of benefit” is essential to meet the City of Edinburgh Council targets for the ways in which they are required to provide for important needs from the youngest to the oldest in an area of growing population.

If you live in this area – as nearly all of you do – you should have received an attractive postcard designed to encourage more people to join us.   

We have delivered nearly 7,000, which gives some idea of the population. We’ve still not quite finished (in case you haven’t got yours yet) but the results, together with our modern media contacts, are very encouraging.

It is now even more important to make sure your friends have signed up too.   

Ask them. 
Nudge them.
Tell them how good it will be for them too.
Why not display the postcard in a window for the world to see?

Imagine Newhaven’s beating heart on display together with the rainbows of hope! What a combination! 🌈 🌎 ❤️ 

Rodney Matthews

Chair, Heart of Newhaven Community 
chair@heartofnewhaven.co.uk

Shifting Ground: Have your say on Heart of Newhaven’s Victoria Primary School plans

2020 becomes 2021. It was announced a couple of weeks ago that a delay in planning approval for the building of the new school means all timetables are put back – we hope by no more than 20 weeks – from August 2020 to January 2021. How does that affect our 2020 vision?

We circulated this definitive information immediately to those who are already members of The Heart of Newhaven so that instead of picking up a rumour they knew all the details of the revised timetable. Now for the implications:

As far as our funding applications are concerned we have to re-schedule timetables; but The Heart of Newhaven dedicated Steering Group is equal to the consequential issues, with the necessary short-term focus to adjust complicated negotiations, confident of timely delivery in due course. That is its job and its members remain dedicated to what is expected of them.

But the time slippage has produced an unexpected opportunity.

We now have 20 more weeks or so to demonstrate the vibrancy of the Newhaven Community. This must not be time wasted just waiting.

At the last update here I’d just got home from an exciting Stakeholder Event organised on our behalf by Planning Aid Scotland, an organisation working with communities to articulate their vision and develop community-led plans. Presented elsewhere on this website PAS identified from participants new ideas and priorities for a multi-generational centre, especially what is needed in terms of community facilities.
What is a Multi-generational centre?
It is important to get used to this way of thinking – opportunities for people of all ages from the youngest to the oldest to sense that they belong to a big but closely knit family where we learn from each other.

Gone are the days when children were expected to be seen but not heard. Who of the older generation has not learned something about technology from those to whom the very latest innovation is literally child’s play?

That is why it is so exciting that our physical focus is upon acquiring Victoria Primary School so it can continue as a hub of learning and discovery, support and encouragement, not just a nostalgic look back to whatever might be considered was its heyday. Its heyday is always now and its future will be just as important as its past. Our present close-up focus task to ensure that happens means publicising as widely as possible all that is going on now demonstrating our sense of community.

Your chance to have your say, please take our survey and tell us what you think of the emerging ideas

Please fill in our survey – will be open for a fortnight only!  
<https://heartofnewhaven.co.uk/community-consultation-survey…>

Thank you for your support and please share as widely as possible!

Rodney Matthews (Vision Facilitator)

Communities all set for summer with £1 million funding boost

No matter what the weather has in store, it’s going to be a summer to remember for community groups across Scotland as National Lottery Award for All Scotland today announces a bumper package of grants worth £1.1 million.  Continue reading Communities all set for summer with £1 million funding boost

Date set for launch of Newhaven Community Mural

Friday 14th June at 2pm

Newhaven Community Garden – all welcome

And coming up this week …

Thursday 6th June: Free Guided Walk

Join professional tour guide Mary Kemp Clarke on a free guided walk of Newhaven. Learn about the fascinating history of the village in a 1.5 hour tour. Meet at the harbour at 2pm.

Sign up by emailing admin@heartofnewhaven.co.uk

The Heart of Newhaven: be part of it!

Monday 28th January at 7pm

Victoria Primary School

Rodney Matthews, Vision Facilitator of the new group, has more details: 

“I am pleased to send you more information about the important event at Victoria Primary School on 28th January when we will formally Launch the Vision for The Heart of Newhaven, which includes our bid to acquire Victoria Primary School for the Newhaven Community in due course.

“Our new website is now active which you can access at heartofnewhaven.co.uk   There you will find much more information.

“I will be delighted to welcome you at this historic occasion which builds on the ideas of the public meeting on 4th October.”

Rodney Matthews, 
The Heart of Newhaven Vision Facilitator