CELL Big Local area covered four small villages – Cresswell, Ellington, Linton and Lynemouth – in a rural area on the Northumberland coast, with a total population of around 4,650 people (ONS, 2022a). Though the overall population slightly decreased between 2011–2021 (ONS, 2012a), new housing developments led to an increase in households in the area (ONS, 2012b; 2022b).
Historically a mining community with two former collieries (coalmines), the closure of the mines in 2005 had a significant impact on the area. A greater proportion of residents were in receipt of working age benefits in the Big Local area compared to Northumberland as a whole (DWP, 2026), and 31 per cent of children aged 0–19 lived in low-income families (DWP, 2024). Several existing community assets, such as Mining Institutes in Ellington and Lynemouth, were a key part of the history of the area.
The CELL Big Local partnership identified a number of priority areas, including transport, employment, the environment, activities for children and young people, housing, accessible community buildings, tackling poverty, and strengthening communities across the four villages.
Partnership subgroups were established based on these priorities. Commissioned organisations were responsible for delivery, with subgroups managing these providers and sometimes supporting delivery as volunteers. Paid worker roles supplemented capacity, managing a small grants scheme and coordinating contracted partners and task groups.
Some sub-groups had limited numbers and ended up having one person responsible for oversight of projects; these were absorbed back into the partnership to better distribute decision-making. When commissioning work, particularly to organisations with limited capacity, the partnership ensured that funding for core costs and delivery roles was made available in addition to the contracted work. This helped kick-start progress and maintain momentum.
The partnership leveraged Big Local funding to support community development skills and bring additional fundraising or resource into the area. They distributed funds to groups or organisations who already had some match-funding or in-kind support in place, or who needed seed funding to attract further funding. This often meant the partnership had to be selective with what they supported, discontinuing funding to projects or activities that were unable to attract additional resource or demonstrate added value to the community. However, exceptions were made when they felt they had the potential to greatly benefit the community, if successful.
CELL Big Local partnership’s approach relied on relationships and strategy. Decisions around commissioning or distributing grants prioritised sustainability. Process, monitoring and evaluation were important in their approach, helping them to remain in touch with the community, understand its needs, maintain delivery momentum, and adapt plans as needed.
Through monitoring and evaluation, the partnership found that during their time delivering the Big Local programme the percentage of residents satisfied with their quality of life increased from 73 to 85 per cent – a figure higher than that for South East Northumberland (69 per cent) and also the whole county (77 per cent). In March 2022, CELL Big Local partnership became the first Big Local area to complete its spending.
The partnership felt their overall approach meant that at the end of their spending, substantially more resource was available in the community than before the programme began, specifically in relation to funding, staff time, knowledge and expertise. Big Local grant and seed funding had enabled groups and organisations across the four villages to raise over £2 million in additional funding.
A Big Local partnership was a group made up of at least eight people that guided the overall direction of delivery in a Big Local area.
The partnership’s commitment to seed- and match-fund projects in the CELL Big Local area brought significant additional funding into the community, helping their Big Local funding go further.
After making an initial contribution of around £25,000 to support the redevelopment of Pele Tower, a medieval tower in the area, Cresswell Pele Tower Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) received over £800,000 of further funding. Pele Tower subsequently became a significant community asset and tourist attraction and was removed from the Heritage at Risk Register. Following this success, further Big Local funding was awarded to support fundraising to redevelop a walled garden on the grounds. The tower and gardens went on to become a key local heritage site, running a range of cultural, historical and scientific events with free entry to the public.
The partnership adopted a similar approach in their attempts to get improved walking and cycle routes between the four villages in the area, which had been raised in community consultation. Big Local funding was used to commission Sustrans to carry out a feasibility study, exploring options and costs for improvement works. The partnership used this study to leverage a meeting with Northumberland County Council (NCC), who carried out their own assessment of options. While they found that the cycle route was not possible, NCC agreed to commit their own funding to an upgrade of the existing pathway surface, which would benefit all users.
CELL Big Local partnership’s strong relationships with local organisations helped them to work collaboratively towards shared goals, despite challenges that required changes to plans. In particular, this approach was used by the partnership to improve and provide new green spaces in the area.
The partnership allocated funds to Groundwork North East and Cumbria to deliver a range of projects across the programme. An early project was to recruit volunteers and support residents to make improvements to the local Lyne Dene. Rubbish was cleared, footpaths were improved and tree-planting events were held to engage residents in the natural environment. Groundwork also supported with the set-up of a Friends of Lyne Dene group.
Later in the programme, the partnership identified an opportunity to create a new community garden or orchard for residents. A site was cleared and new plants planted with the intention that the allotment would be passed on to Groundwork and YMCA Northumberland to make the site accessible and work with local schools to plant fruit trees. Some progress was made, however, the Covid-19 pandemic affected delivery plans. Towards the end of Big Local, YMCA and Groundwork were working together to bring together a committee of residents to manage the site into the future.
The pandemic impacted a similar project aiming to work with volunteers to improve the River Lyne and surrounding green space. As the Big Local programme came to an end, the partnership collaborated with and provided funding to the Northumberland Rivers Trust who committed to a river restoration plan.
Facilities for children and young people was one of the most popular needs identified by residents, especially given residents felt there were an increasing number of families moving to the area. CELL Big Local partnership recognised that this needed to meet the needs of a diverse range of people.
They funded a range of different opportunities and services for young people, including funding YMCA Northumberland to deliver additional youth services across the two bigger villages, making use of the flexibility of Big Local funding for more distanced outdoor sessions during the Covid-19 pandemic. They also provided seed funding for a local scout group, benefitting nearly 100 children from across the villages. Holiday activities and holiday meal schemes for young people in the area were funded too, as well as play parks for the three biggest villages, with older members of the group going on to achieve awards in youth leadership and running sessions for younger scouts.
Holiday activities and holiday meal schemes for young people in the area were funded too, with a focus on educational opportunities. Using Big Local funding, Learning Links delivered a series of activities under the banner of Children’s University, which saw young people get involved in arts and heritage activities.
The partnership recognised the importance of locally-based play facilities for children and young people. They worked with volunteer-led groups to ensure the three main villages in the area had their own dedicated play parks, and a youth football club had new facilities.
The partnership used their existing relationships to work with resident-led groups based on each village and provide support through seed funding, community consultation and feasibility planning. Ellington P.A.R.C. were able to double their initial £50,000 Big Local funding grant to provide the first new play park during the programme, and the partnership found this encouraged other resident groups to reach out to access new and improved play equipment. In Linton, a resident-led group of local parents were successful in raising over £140,000 of further funding for equipment. Once the new play park opened, the group – renamed the Linton Colliery Community Group – remained active in the area, using the new play park as a base for family activities.
In a key example of their collaborative work, the CELL Big Local partnership worked with Ellington Juniors Football Club over a period of several years to support the creation of a new clubhouse, and subsequently an outdoor multi-use games area. The volunteer-led club was supported by the partnership and their paid worker to access additional funding, turning an initial £100,000 investment into a project worth over £700,000. The new spaces were felt to provide important assets for the whole community and helped the football club to boost the number of young people in their teams.
Originally, the partnership had planned to use a community asset transfer to purchase buildings for community use across the villages, and potentially unifying all of Lynemouth’s community buildings into a single new site. However, they eventually decided to fund improvements to existing community buildings as a lower-risk and more sustainable approach that would support existing organisations and assets.
This resulted in improved accessibility in several community spaces, added a new kitchen space to the Lynemouth Miner’s Welfare Institute to support projects around food and cooking, funded urgent repairs, and improved general energy efficiency in community buildings.
Each Big Local area received approximately £1.2 million (ranging from £1.199 mil to 1.209 mil) to spend over 10–15 years, depending on how much additional funding they accessed from Local Trust to address specific needs. For example, to bring people together at the start of the programme or to access training and support. This has been categorised for areas and at the programme level based on reports received from areas.
Partnerships chose their own priorities and categories for reporting, and were encouraged to use broad categories so they could use the funding flexibly. All areas spent a significant amount of money on ‘Big Local delivery costs’ such as workers’ salaries, stationery and IT equipment. You can find out more about programme level spend in this article. This is how CELL Big Local told Local Trust they used their Big Local funding.
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) (2024) ‘Children in low income families: local area statistics’. Available at: gov.uk/government/statistics/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-2014-to-2023/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-financial-year-ending-2023 (Accessed 1 June 2026)
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) (2026) ‘Universal credit’. Available at: gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefit-statistics-february-2026 (Accessed 1 June 2026)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2012a) ‘UK Census 2011: All persons’. Available at: ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/2011censuspopulationandhouseholdestimatesforenglandandwales (Accessed 8 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2012b) ‘UK Census 2011: Number of households with at least one usual resident’. Available at: ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/populationandhouseholdestimatesenglandandwalescensus2021 (Accessed 30 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2022a) ‘UK Census 2021: All persons. Available at: ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/populationandhouseholdestimatesenglandandwalescensus2021 (Accessed 8 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2022b) ‘UK Census 2021: Number of households with at least one usual resident’. Available at: ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/populationandhouseholdestimatesenglandandwalescensus2021 (Accessed 30 October 2024)
