A popular destination for seasonal holidaymakers, the Isle of Sheppey is located off the north coast of Kent, by the Thames Estuary. Based on the north-east coast of the island, Big Local Eastern Sheppey comprised three seaside villages – Leysdown-on-Sea, Warden, and Eastchurch – with nearly 8,000 residents between them (ONS, 2022a). At this time, towns north of the island had working dockyards, and were well-connected to the mainland by a train line and bridge.
The Isle of Sheppey has a rich aviation history, with its flat low grounds making it ideal for experimental flights. However, the partnership felt any related tourism had a limited benefit on the local economy as holidaymakers mostly stayed in caravan or chalet parks, which had their own amenities.
Although the area had a primary school, children’s centre, and seasonal shops, the partnership noted local services (including banking facilities and the local post office) closed during Big Local. Most residents relied on cars to get around, partly due to unreliable bus services and rural roads lacking safe pavements for pedestrians. A relatively high 61 per cent of residents drove a car or van to work (ONS, 2022b; 2022c).
Big Local Eastern Sheppey wanted to create a safe, attractive and welcoming area for residents and holidaymakers alike. In each of the three villages, the partnership consulted both year-round and temporary (up to 10 months of the year) residents to inform their plans and priorities. They focused on supporting young people; improving open spaces; celebrating the area’s natural beauty and history; supporting residents’ health and wellbeing; and strengthening community infrastructure and connections.
Initially the partnership formed sub-groups to drive projects, but eventually made decisions collectively, including around grant-funding and budgeting. Leading work themselves allowed partnership members to maintain good oversight of projects from early on. Eventually they also allocated funds to commissioning services, such as annual pantomimes for young people, to increase their capacity.
Members were active volunteers and were well-connected with residents through schools, local businesses, and community groups. They reflected that these strengths helped them broker partnerships. For example, they worked with the council to provide debt and energy advice, organised Big Local events with other community groups, and worked collaboratively with other groups and schools to provide food.
Big Local Eastern Sheppey ran a Community Chest scheme throughout the programme, distributing grants of up to £500 to successful applicants. Throughout, the partnership sought to treat the whole area equally, accepting the same number of funding bids and distributing the same total amount across the three villages.
After a few years, the partnership sought ways to make the application process more accessible and transparent. They initially held a participatory budgeting event, attended by more than 50 residents, to help publicise small grants to the community. However, they felt that a smaller, dedicated panel would allow them to make funding decisions more efficiently. Members worked to assess applications based on whether they benefited residents within the area, and over time, refined the purpose of the grants to adapt to specific community needs. In 2018, grants supported local community action and infrastructure; in 2019, they prioritised Covid-19 relief projects; and in 2022, focus moved towards projects and activities that would develop resident skills and confidence, piloting innovative ideas and small-capital projects. Due to the small area boundary, many groups received multiple grants. This helped the partnership build long-term trust with organisations and residents, and community resilience in an isolated area with diminishing services.
Throughout the programme, the partnership worked closely with Swale Community & Voluntary Services (CVS) as their locally trusted organisation (LTO). On behalf of Big Local Eastern Sheppey, the LTO employed Big Local workers and distributed small grants. The two organisations worked together to provide services for residents, such as community transport and befriending services to reduce social isolation. The LTO also mentored partnership members.
Multiple partnership members reflected that their involvement in Big Local led to progression in both their professional and personal life by developing communication, people skills and learning to manage different relationships.
Towards the end of the programme, Big Local Eastern Sheppey set up the Eastern Sheppey Community Hub CIO to run their legacy hub in Leysdown. This enabled them to continue running activities to bring residents of all ages together while local groups and services could also utilise the space, for example running diabetes coffee mornings, digital skills workshops, and food pantry drop-ins.
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.
A locally trusted organisation (LTO) was the organisation chosen by people in a Big Local area or the partnership to administer and account for funding, and/or deliver activities or services on behalf of a partnership. Areas might have worked with more than one locally trusted organisation depending on the plan and the skills and resources required.
In 1909, the world’s first aircraft factory opened on the Isle of Sheppey, and the UK’s first successful flight took off from the isle. To celebrate and preserve Sheppey as the birthplace of British aviation, Big Local funding helped local volunteers transform a hut (closed since 1947) on the site of a former WWII RAF Station into a new Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Later, Big Local Eastern Sheppey allocated further funding to purchase a heavy-duty gazebo, allowing the museum to host community events, and a new till for the museum shop. Popular with visitors, the museum generated pride among residents and holidaymakers alike.
In response to Covid-19 lockdowns, poor local bus services, and rising food poverty and deprivation in the area, the partnership worked to help affected residents and ease demand on local food banks. In 2020, they partnered with local organisations to help a secondary school purchase and convert a double-decker bus into a mobile meeting space and food bank. By 2022, the community bus had given 21 families access to food and visited four areas in Eastern Sheppey once a week over the following two years.
Residents paid a small monthly membership fee to access the bus’s services. This included use of the food pantry and wifi, as well as contact with partnering groups, such as Citizens Advice and the Department for Work and Pensions. Some public agencies offered everything from fuel and water advice to domestic abuse support from the bus. It became a space for residents to visit and have a cup of tea, reducing isolation.
After the pandemic, the bus stopped moving around different locations and became based at the Big Local hub, where it continued to host food and advice services. In 2020, Big Local Eastern Sheppey allocated further funding and teamed up with the school, local groups, and volunteers to create a Christmas hamper for residents. They coordinated donations from local supermarkets and delivered over 100 hampers to households across the area.
Curly’s Community Farm provided accessible ‘care farming’, helping children with additional needs improve confidence, social skills, and self-esteem through working with livestock. After their funding ran out during the Covid-19 pandemic, the farm received a Big Local grant to feed the animals and purchase equipment.
Big Local Eastern Sheppey continued to work in partnership with Curly’s Farm, hosting joint events and delivering services for young people. Curly’s Farm became an important delivery partner for their holiday playscheme and weekly youth activity club.
Early in the programme, Big Local Eastern Sheppey provided a range of practical support for young people by funding various groups and schools to host low-fee activities during both term-time and school holidays. This included organising visits to local attractions, such as activity centres where young people could climb and practice archery, and events such as cookery lessons with the Scouts and interactive shows with animals. Running for three years total, up to 20 young people attended each activity, which were supported by a Big Local worker, partnership members, and other volunteers. Up until the Covid-19 pandemic, the partnership also ran an affordable playscheme, which was attended by up to 50 children per session.
Following the pandemic, partly due to internal capacity limitations, the partnership shifted their approach towards more family-focused activities. They commissioned two annual pantomimes by a regional touring company between 2021–2024, working with Warden Parish council to find a suitable venue, and organising ticketing. Held at the community hall, at a nearby prison, and in a joint initiative with Warden Bay Parish Council at the village hall, all shows sold out, with over 200 local families attending on average.
In the final years of Big Local, the partnership also supported young people by allocating funds to various groups and schools through a Partnership Fund. This helped purchase computers and a gazebo and fund a gardening project. By 2024, they had donated 30 laptops to a primary school to help enhance and develop children’s education.
Early focus groups with residents showed that poor transport was leaving them feeling isolated and struggling to access employment. To address this, Big Local Eastern Sheppey partnered with their LTO, Swale CVS, who were already running services to combat isolation. These included a befriending service providing visits to older residents and those with additional needs, and a community transport service, which – in exchange for a small annual fee – helped residents make essential trips, such as to medical appointments, via a volunteer-driven community bus.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Big Local Eastern Sheppey and Swale CVS adapted their befriending and transport services to support isolated older people. Befriending was done by telephone, and the bus service became a shopping service, delivering vital prescriptions.
The partnership wanted to build on the success of the befriending service and make the project intergenerational by matching young people with older people. Big Local Eastern Sheppey provided seed funding in 2018 for local secondary students to run a dementia cafe that moved across different locations – including schools, halls, and the local Scouts hut (attended by 70 people).
Following its initial funding, the cafe continued to grow and gain further investment. An average of 12 students supported the cafe events, with voluntary support from some partnership members. The cafe continued during the pandemic, providing a vital service for older residents.
To celebrate the area’s natural beauty, boost community pride, and bring residents together, Big Local Eastern Sheppey focused consistently on improving the local environment. Their efforts included installing benches in each village; working with Street Games to install games and activities in play areas and on the seafront; improving park and playground facilities; coordinating regular beach cleans with the local Scouts group; and supporting a new Community Wildlife Garden in Warden Bay. In 2017, they registered a CIO to run a dog-walking park; however, after further community consultation, the partnership decided to focus instead on creating an indoor physical space. This was amended in late 2022, to become the Community Hub CIO, established in 2023.
Residents expressed desire for a permanent base for activities and services, so the partnership began working towards creating a community hub in 2018. After meeting with the Kent police and crime commissioner, a paid consultant began the process of purchasing the old police station in Leysdown. After the sale was completed in May 2020, the partnership began refurbishing the building, which they intended to be a “hub with spokes” that reached out to all three parishes. Refurbishment was managed by the Big Local worker, who sourced additional funding, chased contracts, sought quotations, managed contractors, and sent weekly updates to partnership members. The partnership reflected that this challenging project relied on volunteers, and that progress was slow partly due to difficulty getting the right contractors.
From its opening in 2022 onwards, Eastern Sheppey Community hub provided significant value for the community and gave the partnership a focal point for developing their legacy. However, the hub also greatly increased demands on the partnership’s capacity, and meant some members needed to step back while others continued through the final stages of Big Local. Groups began holding meetings and wellbeing events, and residents accessed a wealth of services – including free weekly meals provided by Sheppey Matters Grub Hub, a weekly warm hub, coffee mornings and afternoon tea events, fitness classes, a mini-library, donation and second-hand clothing events, craft workshops (delivered by the Geese Project), and a post locker. After Big Local ended, the hub continued to serve the community by hosting regular activities, such as digital skills workshops for older residents.
Big Local Eastern Sheppey’s long-term vision was for the hub to provide a consistent home for counselling support, youth activities, job clubs, opportunities for business start-ups, and for its attached outdoor space to be used for projects such as men’s sheds. The purchase also came with attached garages, which were rented out to local groups (such as Sheerness Salvation Army) and individuals to generate monthly revenue for the space.
Eastern Sheppey Community Hub was was seen by partnership members as a lasting legacy for Big Local Eastern Sheppey, providing a resource centre where residents could connect. The LTO supported partnership members and residents to form a management team within the CIO, with many members staying on as trustees of the space.
Many Big Local partnerships funded workers to support the delivery of Big Local. They were paid individuals, as opposed to those who volunteered their time. They were different from Big Local reps and advisors, who were appointed and paid by Local Trust.
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 Eastern Sheppey Big Local told Local Trust they used their Big Local funding.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2022a) ‘UK Census 2021: All persons’. Available at: ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/populationandhouseholdestimatesenglandandwalescensus2021 (Accessed: 18 March 2025)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2022b) ‘UK Census 2021: Method used to travel to work, usual residents aged 16 years and over in employment: Driving a car or van’. Available at: ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/traveltoworkenglandandwales/census2021#:~:text=12.5%20million%20people%20travelled%20to,years%20and%20over%20in%20employment (Accessed: 18 March 2025)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2022c) ‘UK Census 2021: Population aged 16 to 64’. Available at: ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/populationandhouseholdestimatesenglandandwalescensus2021 (Accessed 18 March 2025)
