Keighley Valley Big Local area comprised seven small but distinct neighbourhoods east of Keighley, a town just north-west of Bradford in West Yorkshire. The northernmost neighbourhoods – Grange, Riddlesden, and Stockbridge – were close to industrial buildings and the River Aire. They were separated from Strongclose and Thwaits to the south by a busy dual carriageway. Further south-east, the Parkwood and Hainworth and Woodhouse areas were surrounded by woods and moorland, while back towards the urban centre of the valley, the southernmost area – Red Holt and Springbank – sat alongside the River Worth.
Collectively, the seven areas were home to just over 8,000 residents (ONS, 2022a) living predominantly in Victorian terraces or new-builds, with some residents living in flats or former mill cottages. Residents of the different communities tended to have little connection with each other before the Big Local programme.
Reflecting the wider town of Keighley, nearly two-thirds of people in the Keighley Valley Big Local area identified as White British, and just under one third as Asian (ONS, 2023a; ONS 2023b). The population was relatively young, with 25 percent of residents under the age of 16 (ONS, 2022b). Forty-six percent of children under 19 lived in low-income households – twice the average of the wider Yorkshire and Humber region (DWP, 2024).
The Keighley Valley Big Local partnership established its first set of priorities through a participatory budgeting exercise involving 465 residents. To complement this, they ran a ‘cone-sultation’ with the assistance of a local ice cream van, inviting residents of all ages to exchange ideas for ice creams. From this the partnership developed its priorities and vision for the area. They wanted to create a place where young people could play, where residents were supported to improve skills or start new businesses, and where open spaces in the area were clean and welcoming. They also wanted to build community pride, support volunteers and better connect residents to services locally.
Alongside their community consultation, the partnership identified people who wanted to do specific things in their communities – such as plant trees on strips of unused land or set up activities for young people – and offered Quick Win Grants to get started. Many of those who took action went on to join Keighley Big Local partnership.
Throughout the Big Local programme, the partnership focused on listening to previously unheard voices in their community, including neurodiverse residents and ethnic minority communities. In doing so, they felt they became increasingly representative of the seven neighbourhoods. They were also keen to ensure residents felt heard by those running services or making decisions at local authority level. Their One Hour Tidy sessions focused on litter-picking in different parts of the Big Local area, and the partnership invited councillors, housing officers and other local authority staff to get involved too. This enabled residents to meet representatives, ask questions and have their say without travelling into the town centre. Local councillors reported how this helped them to engage better with their constituents.
From the outset, the partnership benefitted from being deeply connected to the community and having a stable relationship with their Locally Trusted Organisation (LTO), Airedale Enterprises – an enterprise support agency. Through this relationship they accessed administrative support, and employed an experienced development worker who built networks, developed organisations, and supported volunteers. The partnership group also included seven ‘critical friends’ who supported decision-making. Made up of representatives from the local college, youth services and town and ward councillors, they helped build relationships and share local knowledge.
The partnership made decisions by (in their own words) “thrashing stuff out” together before casting votes privately via a digital survey. Through this process they allocated grants from their Community Fund of up to £5,000. Over time, the partnership invited applicants to come and present their ideas at partnership meetings. They felt this helped them to learn more about the community, and enabled the development of stronger projects. The Community Fund was paired with £50 Rapid Response Grants. For efficiency, the paid worker approved these grants, which often went towards small set-up costs for residents starting new groups or projects.
One of the partnership’s biggest investments was £80,000 to develop a Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA). This was enabled through a partnership with Bradford Metropolitan Council, who owned the land, co-funded the project, and assisted with technical input. The MUGA was designed to be accessible to all seven neighbourhoods, demonstrating the partnership’s evolution towards collective, area-wide thinking.
Towards the end of the programme, the Keighley Valley Big Local partnership made the decision to no longer meet as a group once the funding had been spent. Instead, they focused their remaining time on sustaining the most impactful projects. As Big Local came to an end, the partnership felt there was now a great deal more activity happening locally, which encouraged community pride, and the legacy of Big Local could also be seen in new groups and organisations in the area, such as Get Out More and Worth River Friends.
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.
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.
The Keighley Valley Big Local partnership was committed to nurturing the natural world around Keighley Valley. One example developed when the partnership Development Worker (employed by the partnership) spotted a resident out with a bucket and torch helping toads cross the road one spring evening. With some financial, communications and organisational support from Keighley Valley Big Local partnership, ‘Riddlesden Toad Patrol’ became an organised annual community event, seeing Keighley residents of all ages come together each spring to assist migrating toads, newts, and frogs on their breeding journey from the Riddlesden gardens towards the Leeds and Liverpool canal.
Another area of focus was the River Worth, which ran between the estates and industrial buildings of Keighley Valley and linked many of the neighbourhoods within the area. The partnership supported a group of residents to form the River Worth Friends group, and champion the much-needed restoration of the river corridor. An initial £20,000 investment enabled the partnership to secure a further £50,000 funding from the Towns Fund to improve the Worth’s footpaths and adjacent green spaces, working with the Aire Rivers Trust.
This initiative benefitted from the culture of hands-on environmental action that the partnership had established through initiatives such as ‘One Hour Tidies’ across its neighbourhoods, and saw 25 residents participate in a river clean-up event. Helping to establish a long-term organisation meant that ongoing issues such as river pollution could be addressed, and towards the end of the Big Local programme, more wildlife (such as dippers) had begun to return to the valley.
Mid-way through the programme, Keighley Valley Big Local partnership was supported by Local Trust to work with Unltd — a foundation for social entrepreneurs. With a wider goal of building a social-enterprise economy in the area, they accessed £50,000 of additional funding, and a three-year mentorship and training package to support twelve startups in Keighley Valley.
Among these were Discover T’ai Chi, an organisation created by two partnership members. The partnership also invested in Green Drinks Keighley (later rebranded as Keighley Green Get Together), a monthly gathering for people interested in the environment, sustainability and social change. This group spearheaded the campaign for Keighley to become a designated Social Enterprise Town. Six of the start-ups supported by the partnership were still delivering towards the end of the Big Local programme.
The partnership also awarded £25,000 to enable another social enterprise, Future Transformations CIC, to begin an ambitious plan to regenerate Keighley’s historic Dalton Mill. A feasibility study into creating a space and technology training centre at the Mill had been completed, when, in 2022, a devastating fire gutted the building. The partnership quickly learnt to assess the complex financial risks of continuing the project, and together they agreed to withdraw the remaining unspent funding of £20,000 to re-invest in their wider vision.
The Keighley Valley Big Local partnership played an important role in supporting the development of new organisations which aimed to support the needs of residents. One example developed when the partnership helped organise distribution of surplus supermarket food at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. A partnership member and her sibling extended this service, and with the help of a team of volunteers created Ma Kelly’s Kitchen, supplying over 200 hot meals a day to residents.
The partnership supported the initiative with a series of small grants and the local authority provided further funding, enabling Ma Kelly’s Kitchen to reach a wider area, deliver Christmas Hampers and craft packs, and offer free food-preparation training to volunteers. Towards the end of the Big Local programme, Ma Kelly’s Kitchen attracted a donation of £15,000 from BUPA.
In another example, a local resident who was a parent of an autistic child created Café Eden – a place where parents of children with autism could offer each other mutual support. Big Local funding was invested in the café which was held once a month, and the development worker helped the resident build partnerships with Airedale and Wharfedale Autism Resource and Keighley College, who hosted the café. The college later employed the resident to work with 120 families with children with learning difficulties across Keighley. The project wrapped up in 2024, as Big Local was coming to an end.
After the success of the partnership’s Quick Win Grants in the early years of Big Local, volunteers in Keighley Valley became a core part of the programme. They set up groups, brought new ideas and helped projects thrive.
The partnership recognised the importance of rewarding volunteers. They felt this would help motivate residents to participate long-term and ensure they felt valued for their contributions. A Golden Ticket scheme was developed for those who were seen to go above and beyond with their volunteering – these were distributed by the partnership or paid worker giving recipients free tickets to community events. Meanwhile the Surrey Street Rewards Project saw 28 young people encouraged to litter pick their local play area. Those who participated received stickers on a reward card which they could cash in for a play day, to access sports equipment or to attend a trip. Many of the rewards were also organised and supported by resident volunteers.
The partnership felt that the reward scheme became a way of engaging and recruiting more residents. In turn, this gave more residents the opportunity to build their skills and confidence to deliver activities locally.
In line with the vision for an area where everyone had “the chance to live and play,” an established social enterprise called Get Out More worked closely with Keighley Valley Big Local partnership to connect young people to the area’s hills and woodlands. Through a bespoke programme, called All for Play, local children attended forest school sessions in exchange for taking part in local litter picks.
In addition, children and adults were invited to come together to garden and visit natural spaces. These activities attracted people from beyond the Keighley Valley Big Local area, which increased residents’ confidence and pride in the area, and in turn increased their willingness to take part in other community activities. Get Out More went on to become a community interest company (CIC), and in 2024 secured a National Lottery Community Fund grant of over £250,000 to deliver similar activities across all of Keighley and wider West Yorkshire.
In 2019, the Keighley Valley Big Local partnership brought together a successful consortia bid for £300,000 of European community-led local development (CLLD) funding with Keighley College. By contributing £75,000, the partnership enabled the development of Jam on Top recording studios, providing a home for local radio station Keighley on Aire. Here around 40 young volunteers (many of whom met at a Keighley Valley Big Local-funded open mic night called Tribe of Noise) learned to create broadcast content and perform live music. While the radio station unfortunately closed during the Covid-19 lockdowns, Jam on Top remained a successful recording and rehearsal studio at the end of the Big Local programme.
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 Keighley Valley 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 15 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2022) ‘UK Census 2021: All persons’. Available at: ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/populationandhouseholdestimatesenglandandwalescensus2021 (Accessed 10 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2023a) ‘UK Census 2021: Ethnic group: White: English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British’. Available at:
ons.gov.uk/datasets/TS021/editions/2021/versions/3 (Accessed 15 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2023b) ‘UK Census 2021: Ethnic group: Asian’. Available at: ons.gov.uk/datasets/TS021/editions/2021/versions/3 (Accessed 15 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2023c) ‘UK Census 2021: Age structure of the population: Population aged under 16’. Available at: ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/populationandhouseholdestimatesenglandandwalescensus2021 (Accessed 15 October 2024)
