Lottery boost of £248,000 for Corby's Kingswood estate

A huge Lottery cash boost is set to improve provision for youngsters on Corby’s Kingswood estate.

The estate has been awarded £248,096 from the National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, to support the new Kingswood Urban Development Project.

The three-year initiative will provide much-needed youth engagement and provision in the area, including an upgrade to the existing skatepark, a new calisthenic rig and solar lighting on the multi-use games area.

It will also provide a range of sport activities and engagement programmes to encourage young people to be more active and take up volunteering, training and learn employability skills.

Over the past two years, Covid-19 has impacted greatly on the Kingswood community, particularly young people.

Pandemic restrictions on activities combined with social isolation have resulted in a reduction in physical activity levels and mental health issues are increasing.

The new initiative will provide young people with new opportunities and support them to develop healthy relationships, while engaging in positive activities.

The project will help to improve access and increase usage of the places and spaces where young people hang-out by improving existing provision.

It will also help to restart youth activities in the area, engage and promote local clubs, all of which has been lacking in Kingswood for many years.

As gang culture and anti-social behaviour increase in the area, this project aims to create diversionary activities to help to prevent crime and effectively build resilience among those at-risk by strengthening life skills and minimizing the risk factors related to gangs, violence and drug use.

The skatepark build will be completed by the end of February 2023 and will be located on the old skatepark facility near the Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre.

A full-time youth worker will be in post supporting youth engagement projects for the next three years, working with delivery partners to ensure young people from the estate have the opportunity to gain new skills and training as well as have new facilities such as the skatepark and calisthenic bars on their doorstep.

Lynn Johnston, facilities manager of Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre, said: “Kingswood is known as a ‘left behind area’ and hasn’t seen any upgrades for many years.

"People haven’t been given opportunities in this area.

"We have been consulting with the community for many years which has highlighted the lack of youth opportunities and very run down skate park and lack of facilities on the estate.

"We have engaged the Kingswood community every step of the way on the project so far, with many rounds of consultation particularly with the young people to see what types of facilities they would like to see developed in the area.

"We are very grateful to the National Lottery, as this scale of the project would not be possible without this investment.”

The project is a collaboration between Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre, Northamptonshire Sport, North Northamptonshire Council and KHL Big Local, who have been working closely with the community over recent years to improve access to opportunities in the area.

As one of the priority areas within the Corby Levelling up Agenda, North Northamptonshire Council is supporting the project with officer time, overseeing capital works and managing the designated budget.

The council will also be responsible for ongoing maintenance following installation.

Cllr Helen Howell, deputy leader of NNC and executive member for sport, leisure, culture and tourism, said: “Creating better life chances for all in North Northants is a priority for us and as a new council we are looking at seeing how we can work more closely with communities to make this happen.

"I’m delighted that the Kingswood community has been given this substantial cash injection.

“Keeping active and being physically fit can bring widespread benefits to all of us but of course facilities need to be available and they have to be easy to access.

“Working together we’ve been able to identify what would work well for the people of Kingswood and I look forward to see the new equipment installed.”

Cllr Matt Binley, NNC’s executive member for housing, communities and levelling up, said: “We see working in partnership as the key to levelling-up communities to create healthy, prosperous and connected places in which to live.

"I’m delighted to see this project receive the funding it richly deserves.”