Little Hulton
Key points
- Little Hulton Big Local responded to crises by setting up an affordable food market and supporting people through the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Based on community feedback and research, they developed a new bike track, improved a local park and are developing a bigger, permanent community hub.
- The partnership set up and merged with CommUNITY Little Hulton (a membership CIO) to carry on their resident-led approach to delivering activities in the area once Big Local ended.
About the Big Local area
Seven miles north-west of the city of Salford and nearly four miles south from Bolton, Little Hulton is a town in the 10 per cent most deprived areas in England (MHCLG, 2019), with many children living in poverty. Although it has local amenities such as schools, churches, a shopping area and a family centre, it was identified as a ‘left behind’ place because of its lack of social infrastructure (OCSI, 2019).
The Little Hulton Big Local area covered the whole town, bisected by the very busy A6 going east/west and the A508 north/south and including several housing estates. Between 2011 and 2021, the area increased by 11 per cent in population to nearly 20,000 (ONS, 2012; 2022a). Over 35 per cent of Little Hulton’s 8,000 households had no cars compared to just under 25 per cent in the North West (ONS, 2022b; 2023).
How the Big Local area approached delivery
The Little Hulton Big Local partnership consulted residents to create their first plan in 2014. Their priorities were to improve community spaces, create opportunities for young people, and support residents’ employment and wellbeing.
The Big Local partnership employed people to create and implement processes to award funding, and commission and deliver projects, as partnership members faced capacity challenges due to existing work. Together, they worked closely with the community and other stakeholders to develop and deliver projects and run a small grants scheme.
From the outset, the partnership planned to create a Community Interest Organisation to continue their work beyond the Big Local programme. In 2019, they set up the membership organisation – CommUNITY Little Hulton – to build on the Big Local legacy. Trustees were residents, with some partnership members also serving as trustees. The ethos of CommUNITY was inspired by the resident-led approach of the Big Local programme, and anyone who used the organisation’s services became a member. As the programme came to a close, CommUNITY Little Hulton merged with the partnership, increasing their members to nearly 700, a third of whom were young people engaged through the youth club. The merger helped prepare the organisation for their future beyond Big Local, gaining experience of managing a large grant fund, raising additional funding, and learning about governance.
Over time, the partnership and CommUNITY Little Hulton responded to different forms of crises, such as a food pantry closing and the Covid-19 pandemic. They adapted their response and developed community resilience, supporting residents to navigate from one crisis to the next. Recognising the need for long-term crisis response provision, the partnership successfully brought in additional funding for a permanent community hub within Peel Park. Towards the end of the programme, this new hub provided space for CommUNITY Little Hulton to continue developing and delivering activities and services to enhance the community’s wellbeing.
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 Big Local Plan set out what changes the partnership planned to make, how they planned to deliver on this and how funds were to be allocated. It was written for themselves, their community and Local Trust, as a guide and action plan.
What the Big Local area did
Community assets and spaces
Improving the local park to make the case for a permanent community hub
Initially, the Little Hulton Big Local partnership rented a space in the local shopping area to increase their visibility and provide a base for some of their activity and services. However, resident-led community research found that young people, families and local groups had no quality spaces to meet, and the partnership recognised that their rented base was not large enough to meet this need.
The partnership committed to developing Peel Park, which had an underused pavilion in need of refurbishment. They first focused on improving the spaces around the pavilion and using the park to host more activities and events for young people and families. The partnership hoped that increasing the amount of people regularly using the park would strengthen their case for the pavilion to be renovated into a fit-for-purpose community hub.
Further community research was used to address community needs and build a case for better facilities in Peel Park. The community had previously experienced resistance from local authorities on the development of a bike track and multi-use games area in the park. However, after community research evidenced the need, the partnership was able to leverage an initial £50,000 investment and gain funding from others including Access Sport and Sport England to build these new facilities. The partnership reflected that these new spaces were well-used by young people, with the youth club running cycling sessions on the bike track.
Finally, further feedback from the community revealed that the pavilion and its toilets were only open for four hours a week, which was limiting park use. Drawing on this consultation and their experience in leading complex projects, CommUNITY Little Hulton were able to successfully fundraise nearly £1 million to rebuild Peel Park Pavilion. This versatile community space opened in March 2025.
Community engagement
Incentivising residents to participate and volunteer
Residents were incentivised to engage with Big Local work in creative and rewarding ways. For example, many Annual General Meetings were run as activity days, helping attract more residents and bring the community together around something fun.
The partnership was also keen to ensure that residents’ contributions were recognised. Alongside paying the resident researchers who supported with community consultation, the partnership set up The Little Hulton Pound. Volunteers earned one Little Hulton Pound for every five volunteering hours, which they could spend at community businesses.
Investing in young people
Setting up a youth club to support access to low-cost activities
Early in the Big Local programme, the Little Hulton partnership supported the setup of Youth Unity – a local youth club providing low-cost activities and youth provision for local young people and families. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Youth Unity ran sessions two nights a week at a local library with 80 to 100 young people attending. During the pandemic they had to work differently, for example providing activity packs, mental health packs, planting packs, period kits, and baking packs. They also ran some small group sessions at Peel Park.
After the pandemic, youth club activities were delivered at a local family centre, whilst Peel Park Pavilion continued to be developed. From its opening in 2025, this new community hub provided a permanent home for Youth Unity. CommUNITY Little Hulton plans to continue funding the youth club, as they are the sole provider locally of low-cost or free activities such as football, multi-sports, arts and crafts, media, dance and theatrical performances, teamwork games, bike track sessions, cooking and life skills.
Responding to crisis and urgent need
Supporting vulnerable residents during Covid-19
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Little Hulton Big Local community hub was essential. The small hub was able to remain open through the second and third national lockdowns because it had become an essential service for the community. The partnership supported adults in vulnerable situations and made home deliveries to those isolating, illustrating how well-placed small community-led organisations can deliver change in their communities.
Running a food club to support people in need
In 2020, the local food pantry unexpectedly closed, leaving people without an alternative option. To meet this new community need, Little Hulton Big Local partnership started a free weekly food club. Residents could get access to free tinned, fresh, chilled and frozen food, and those unable to travel could get food delivered, including freshly cooked meals.
The food club, which was styled as a market, was free of charge for the first 9 months of delivery, when the partnership set up a more sustainable membership system, where members received a minimum of 12 items for £2.50. After three years of operating they had over 400 members, with changes in benefits prompting more residents to sign up each week. The new Peel Park Pavilion provided a new venue to host the market.
How the Big Local area spent their funding
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 Little Hulton Big Local told Local Trust they used their Big Local funding.
References
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) (2019) ‘English indices of deprivation 2019’. (Accessed 17 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2012) ‘UK Census 2011: All persons’. (Accessed 17 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2022a) ‘UK Census 2021: All persons’. (Accessed 17 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2022b) ‘UK Census 2021: Number of households with at least one usual resident’. (Accessed 17 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2023) ‘UK Census 2021: No cars or vans in household’. (Accessed 17 October 2024)
Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OCSI) (2019) ‘List of left behind neighbourhoods’. (Accessed 17 October 2024)