News from Bolton at Home
Here you'll find our most recent news articles, from important tenant updates and new housing developments, to new community initiatives and activities.
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Celebrating the reopening of The Willows Centre in Deane (2024)
On Wednesday 15 May 2024, we brought together our colleagues, partners, community groups, and local residents to celebrate the re-launch a vibrant community hub* in Deane. Here’s Chris Wood, our Community Engagement Manager, to talk a bit about our refurbishment of *The Willows Centre and why it’s such an important part of the community:
Learn more about how and why we refurbished The Willows Centre:
The Willows Centre has seen no shortage of visitors throughout its 20-year history, and remains as popular as ever today, so, we made the decision to close it for extensive improvement works in December 2023.
We did this not only to address general wear and tear issues that’d accumulated from its usage over the years, but to make it an even more effective, accessible space for our one of a kind community groups to use, securing the future of the centre for years to come.
A large chunk of the renovations were made possible thanks to a £98,699 grant our Community Engagement Team had successfully applied for and received from Valencia Communities Fund. Local elected members also contributed £10,000, and we (Bolton at Home) added further funds to bring the total to £127,000. We spent this on:
- new flooring,
- internal decorating,
- a brand new, state-of-the-art commercial kitchen,
- electrical rewiring,
- a new storage room,
- and upgrades to the external fencing, storage containers, entrance door and ramp, and soffits.
We've also made plans to refurbish the garden areas around the perimeter of the centre in the coming weeks.
Who uses The Willows Centre?
We were delighted to welcome community groups back to The Willows Centre when it reopened in April this year (2024). At the time of the launch event this May (2024), the centre was host to several ladies groups, ESOL classes, homework clubs – including one for SEN schoolchildren, Scouts, church drop-ins, a foster carers support group, and others.