Warsop Parish
Key points
- To maximise the impact of Big Local funding, the partnership chose to deliver plans through an existing hyperlocal organisation who were well placed to bring in additional funding, connect residents to each other and local activities, and handle logistics.
- The partnership developed three community spaces that served different purposes and locations across the area, which became hubs for local organisations to run activities.
- Two grant programmes – the RoLo Community Chest and the Good Ideas Pot – built community capacity by empowering residents to turn their ideas into reality.
About the Big Local area
The Warsop Parish Big Local area covered a semi-rural parish and ex-coal mining community in Nottinghamshire. The arrival of the coal mines in the 19th century brought people and employment, leading to an increase in the local population. The main coal colliery closed in 1989, and the partnership reflected that the industry declining led to unemployment and community assets falling into disrepair. Despite that, between 2011 and 2021 there was a 7 per cent increase in households, with 12,631 people living in Warsop Parish in 2021 (ONS, 2012, 2022a, 2022b).
The Big Local area was made up of five distinct but connected neighbourhoods. The area was about a 20-minute drive from Mansfield and a 60-minute drive from Nottingham. 48 per cent of housing was semi-detached, compared to 36 per cent in the wider East Midlands (ONS, 2023a). The partnership noted the pleasant physical appearance of the town and a longstanding culture of residents ‘pitching in’ to support their community.
There were a high number of local businesses that offered a range of expertise and services. However, partnership members were concerned about employment opportunities and health and wellbeing in the area. 32 per cent of children aged 0–19 were living in relative low-income families, compared to 24 per cent in the East Midlands, and 30 per cent of households were claiming Universal Credit, compared to 23 per cent in the East Midlands (DWP, 2025a; 2025b). The area also had twice the amount of people reporting very bad health compared to the wider region (ONS, 2023b).
How the Big Local area approached delivery
In preparation for their first Big Local plan, the Warsop Parish partnership spent over two years engaging residents and identifying priorities to address. These included meeting the needs of young people; training and employment opportunities; quality of life for older residents; health and wellbeing; protecting the local environment; and supporting the local economy. Based on these needs, the partnership developed four guiding priorities – strengthening communities; empowering and supporting people through education and training; activities for residents of all ages; and improving the environment. They agreed on a vision – to “help make Warsop Parish an even better place to live, restoring some vibrancy and pride through being a catalyst to individuals and local groups, increasing capability and helping residents achieve potential”.
Warsop Parish Big Local were known locally as ‘Big Warsop’. The partnership agreed plans, allocated funds to subgroups, and monitored the progress of subgroups responsible for delivering specific projects. Paid workers and volunteers also supported delivery. Residents were consulted throughout the programme to ensure that funding allocation reflected local need. This was done through events, social media, and creative engagement. For example, a video booth to interview young people. The partnership also contributed to and used the results of a large, formal consultation undertaken by Strategic Leisure, local charities, and the local authority in 2019, titled ‘Living Well in Warsop’. 700 residents and a range of partners were engaged to understand what improvements people wanted to see in Warsop Parish, and the barriers residents faced to participating in community activity.
It was important to the partnership that residents didn’t just suggest ideas, but that they had the capacity and opportunities to bring them to fruition. The partnership also recognised that they would not be able to deliver on their priorities alone and instead focussed on building community capacity. For that reason, they saw their role as a facilitator and enabler – providing local groups with links, resources, knowledge, and funding, and supporting residents’ initiatives. After slow progress in their first year, they decided that the investment of Big Local funding in a single organisation would be more impactful than investing in multiple organisations. A significant amount of Big Local funding was therefore awarded to Vibrant Warsop, to deliver the partnership’s main priority – strengthening communities. As an existing hyperlocal community interest company (CIC) with similar aims to the Big Local partnership, Vibrant Warsop understood the Warsop Parish community and were well-placed to make use of flexible funding to address local need and empower residents through their Growing Stronger Together project.
The partnership felt that delivering through Vibrant Warsop enabled them to maximise their impact within the community. Vibrant Warsop were able to source additional funding, connect residents to each other and to local activities and support offers, and handle the logistics of community work. New projects – such as environmental initiatives involving local groups and organisations – emerged from engaging with the community in this way. Alongside this, Mansfield Community and Voluntary Service — the Locally Trusted Organisation (LTO) — played a strong role in Covid-19 support throughout the region and helped direct residents towards Vibrant Warsop for further support.
Big Local funding was also invested in two grants programmes, enabling residents to develop their ideas and deliver their own projects. These grants programmes formed part of Warsop Parish Big Local’s legacy; the partnership felt that capacity had been built within the community, and one grants programme continued beyond Big Local through another organisation.
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.
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.
What the Big Local area did
Community assets and spaces
Rebuilding community assets and serving different communities
Residents felt that the closure of local mines had led to the loss of social spaces. The Warsop Parish Big Local partnership began addressing this by supporting building developments, focussing on working with what was already in the community rather than on new projects. By the end of the Big Local programme, three community spaces were up and running, serving different purposes and locations across the community – all partially developed with Big Local funding.
The first of these was the Adam Eastwood Building – known as ‘The Shed’. The Shed was converted using Big Local funding and comprised of a meeting room and large hall for activities. It was run by Warsop Youth Club, offering youth activities and a place for young people to go. Though, it was also available to hire by the community and regularly used to host activities such as yoga, Pilates, martial arts and Zumba, as well as various community events. After the redevelopment, the partnership reported an average of 500 people using the building every week.
The partnership also worked with Vibrant Warsop CIC to acquire a Methodist Church that was up for auction, to transform it into a community hub and base for Vibrant Warsop. In 2022, thanks to funding support from Warsop Parish Big Local, Vibrant Warsop moved into their new home – ‘The Vibrant Venue’. Residents volunteered to help renovate the space, which became a connecting point for local groups. The partnership used this space for meetings and activities for the rest of Big Local. It became a thriving community hub that hosted daily activities such as coffee mornings, line dancing, arts and crafts, music and singing groups, table tennis, and a growing group.
The partnership felt that supporting the development of community hubs in the area was impactful for local groups and organisations, bringing different parts of the Warsop Parish community together and providing residents with opportunities and activities. Friends of Warsop Vale — a committee of residents addressing local challenges, building connections and running events — were supported to acquire The Sargison Centre to run activities. Friends of Warsop Vale held off purchasing the building until they were confident they had the community backing and necessary capacity. Rather than taking the lead, Warsop Parish Big Local and Vibrant Warsop supported the group to build their capacity to take on and run the space themselves. The Friends felt that the partnership helped them identify the right time to take on the community space, and to register as a CIC in 2022. They submitted a business plan to the partnership for Big Local funding to support the purchase and renovation of the building, and opened the centre in 2023, bringing residents together.
Place-based pride and connection
Continuing a community tradition
Community consultation revealed that Warsop Carnival – a long-standing tradition – was seen as the main community event of the year and a source of pride in the Big Local area. Prior to Big Local, funding was becoming harder to secure, and the carnival was at risk of being retired. Warsop Parish Big Local supported the Carnival to continue running on an annual basis throughout the programme.
Some partnership members joined the Warsop Carnival Committee to help run the event, and Big Local funding was allocated for the Carnival each year. In 2014, over 6000 people attended with over 20 stall holders. This also became an opportunity for the partnership to connect with local people and discover local groups interested in applying for a grant. Continuing the carnival helped to keep local groups going, as many relied on the event as a major source of income. Through this event, the community could come together and celebrate Warsop Parish, raise funds, recruit volunteers, and acknowledge the work of the partnership and Vibrant Warsop.
Community engagement
Empowering and supporting residents through grants
The partnership’s two grant programmes – the Good Ideas Pot, and RoLo Community Chest – supported residents to develop their own initiatives and helped build local capacity.
The RoLo Community Chest launched early on and was delivered by Warsop Parish Big Local and Shirebrook Rotary Club, providing small grants for local groups. The initiative funded an average of 10–20 groups each year. This helped residents turn their ideas into realities; for example, a resident with a passion for musical theatre set up a successful children’s choir, a greenhouse was installed for a local youth gardening club, and equipment was bought for the local scouts. To enable this programme to continue running beyond Big Local, the partnership supported the Rotary Club to identify new collaborators. As of 2025, the community chest was still funding grants of up to £300 for voluntary and community groups.
The Good Ideas Pot dedicated a larger annual budget to ideas and projects that linked to the partnership’s vision and priorities. This supported a number of initiatives, notably the installation of defibrillators across the parish and the purchase of a minibus for community use, collaboratively run by the local school and youth club.
Responding to crisis and urgent need
Strengthening community support during Covid-19
By 2020, Warsop Parish Big Local had built strong local connections and relationships under their ‘strengthening communities’ priority. This meant they were well-placed to support the needs of residents when Covid-19 lockdowns were in place across the UK. The partnership reflected that they became more motivated and energised during this time and successfully coordinated a Community Action Response (CAR Warsop) in partnership with Vibrant Warsop and the local community and voluntary sector.
They recruited new volunteers, gave referrals to agencies for specialist support, delivered emergency food parcels, ran errands for residents in isolation, distributed fish and chips vouchers, and offered befriending services, educational resources, and books and toy exchanges for children and young people. They also worked with the local authority to better identify community need. By July 2020, CAR Warsop had delivered 306 hampers within the Parish, feeding 407 adults and 278 children, and providing 100 children’s activity packs.
Working collaboratively
Achieving greater influence through greater capacity
Increased engagement, capacity and delivery in the area helped the Warsop Parish Big Local partnership to develop strategic relationships with local powerholders. For example, seeing the need for keeping the Warsop fire station open, and feeding this into consultations on fire station closures, the partnership contributed to keeping it operational.
In 2023, funding and planning permission for a new community sports and health hub in Market Warsop was approved. This came from ongoing community engagement which identified the health and wellbeing needs of residents. Through Vibrant Warsop, Warsop Parish Big Local contributed by evidencing this need through extensive consultation and working with local councils and trusts, having laid the groundwork for resident voices to influence local decision-making. The Warsop Health Hub opened towards the end of Big Local, with Vibrant Warsop as a delivery partner.
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 Warsop Parish Big Local told Local Trust they used their Big Local funding.
References
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) (2025a) ‘Children in low income families: local area statistics’. (Accessed 9 October 2025)
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) (2025b) ‘Universal credit’. (Accessed 9 October 2025)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2012) ‘UK Census 2011: Number of households with at least one usual resident’. (Accessed 18 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2022a) ‘UK Census 2021: Number of households with at least one usual resident’. (Accessed 18 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2022b) ‘UK Census 2021: All persons’. (Accessed 9 October 2024)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2023a) ‘UK Census 2021: Whole house or bungalow: Semi-detached. (Accessed 9 October 2025)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2023b) ‘UK Census 2021: Self-reported general health: bad health/very bad health’. (Accessed 10 October 2025)