Community Power Podcast Series 2 Episode 8: Innovative community spaces in Eastern Sheppey

Episode 8: Innovative community spaces in Eastern Sheppey

Chris Allen

Hello and welcome to this week’s Community Power Podcast, a series brought to you in partnership with Local Trust. My name’s Chris Allen, and in this series, we’re showcasing some incredible projects, focusing in particular on what happens when you give local people the resources, the power and the assets to make a difference to their neighbourhoods. With me is series producer Beth Lazenby, I think this week, we’re off to a very special part of the United Kingdom, aren’t we? 

Beth Lazenby

The Isle of Sheppey is a little island in the South East of England. And we’re going to be chatting today to Emma and Dan, who are both part of Eastern Sheppey Big Local. One of them is a worker, and one of them has been a part of the Partnership for a very long time, since they were a young person. And they’re going to be talking to us about two of the community spaces that they have. One is a support bus, and another is a police station that they are refurbing to become a community centre. 

Chris Allen

Thanks Beth. And first of all, I asked Dan to tell us a little bit about the area, which is so special and so unique in the country? 

Dan

I’ve actually lived on Sheppey my entire life, so I literally don’t know anything else other than poor Sheppey. It is a lovely place. And I’m not just saying that because I’ve lived here all my life. It is a lovely place to go for dog walks, amusements down in Leysdown when they’re open, etc, etc, and it’s…During the summer time, it is thriving with activity from the holiday makers that come down from all over England to come down to Sheppey. Visit different historical landmarks, i.e. The Shurland in East church and different war memorials located around Warden and Leysdown. 

Chris Allen

That’s really good to hear, because you know, everything you said there, Daniel is absolutely positive about the area. So therefore you see it, you know, as it is really a very positive area, you see the positive rather than the negative. How did you get involved, Daniel, with the Big Local in the first place? I think you’ve been involved for quite a long time. 

Dan

Yeah, I actually started off with Big Local while I was in school. Started off in East church, had our first meeting to elect a CIO, etc. And from there, I just thought, you know what, I see potential in this. We’ll see how it goes and went on from there. And about eight years down the line, we went through Chairman after Chairman with new ambitions, new projects and new ways of going forward. And with each Chairman brought its new potentials, new possibilities and new challenges. 

Chris Allen

Sounds like you get a long service medal for all that Daniel. 

Dan

It feels like it. 

Chris Allen

And Emma, Eastern Sheppey it’s still got his own distinct areas as well, hasn’t it? Just to say Eastern Sheppey covers up the fact you’ve got some different elements within there, and not always easy to get different parts of an area working together. What sort of challenges have you faced there? 

Emma

I think luckily, I think again, the whole of the island is quite…there’s not so many different organisations and charities and local councillors, so many people want to work together. There are obviously political views with certain things. But I do find that, especially now with we’re coming up – I know we’re gonna get onto this – but renovating the old police station, now that we’re going to have kind of a base in Leysdown at the eastern end of the island, there’s so many people across the whole island that are interested in working over there. Because they want to access residents in that area, and not just the busier areas like Minster or Sheerness. So they’re kind of these harder times of like working together. 

Chris Allen

So I mean, you mentioned the community hub. You’re renovating a police station. Tell us about how that came about. 

Emma

Yeah, so I believe it was early 2020. Obviously with Big Local, we want our legacy project when Big Local comes to an end. So yeah, the building was purchased, the windows were changed. It was all looking exciting, and then the pandemic hit. So everything came to a standstill. Nothing happened. No tradespeople. We couldn’t get hold we couldn’t get hold of them. So it, yeah, it all kind of came to a standstill. 

Chris Allen

You explain it very easily. There about, ​“oh, and we bought it,” you know. But sometimes there’s complications in buying a building that used to belong to the local authorities or to the police. How did that, was it an easy thing to do? Was it and the police wanted you to have it? And you said, ​“Oh, yes, please, here’s the money?” 

Emma

So I wasn’t part of Big Local when they bought the property. But from what I know is the building had just been there. It was, I don’t think it’d been a police station, police station for a long time. So it was basically just a building that wasn’t getting used. I don’t think it was ever vandalised at that point. But it was just an empty building that was just there, didn’t do anything, had no purpose. I don’t know, kind of know what the process was for them purchasing it because I wasn’t here then. I don’t know if Daniel, you remember? 

Chris Allen

Do you remember the process Daniel? 

Dan

It was originally up for auction, and there was about three people that were interested in the building at the time. But buying the building came with a lot of complications, which the CIO and the partner companies managed to iron out. And a few years later, we’re, what, two weeks away from opening up fully. Fingers crossed. 

Chris Allen

Well, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But you sound like you’ve done all the kind of groundwork there in terms of moving it forward. And is it well strategically placed within the area then Emma that so therefore it’ll be, it’ll be somewhere that the the community can easily relate to? 

Emma

Yes, so it’s right near you’ve kind of got a strip leading down to the beach, where all the arcades and things are. And there’s also a bandstand, which they call the Spinny. That’s pretty much near that. And you’ve got local pubs, got the village hall just up the road, so it’s all quite local to things. So yeah, it’s in a good spot to be fair. It’s still walking distance for a lot of Leysdown residents. Other people across the island, I know very much want to use the space. So yeah, it’s going to be really good when it’s open. 

Chris Allen

So what added value do you think it’ll be to the programme, having the hub there? 

Emma

I think it’ll be great. I mean, we’ve already had so many people interested in using the spaces, like on a weekly basis, or as drop in. Because, again, there’s a lot of organisations who want to help people in eastern Sheppey, but it is sometimes a struggle to find the space, the spaces to use. So I think having an actual base for residents, but having it for organisations as well, it’s going to be amazing. Because there’s going to be an actual place where people can go in and get advice for things. I mean, we’ve got so many different people who are interested. So we’ve got like, kind of talk therapy, NHS, fuel vouchers. That’s very big at the moment with the cost of living crisis. So yeah, there’s lots of people and helpful people that are really going to help support local residents. So yeah, I think it’s going to be great. It’s going to be a great building when it’s when it’s ready. 

Chris Allen

Not content with that, Daniel, you’ve also now got a bus to go out to different people as a food pantry as well. Different areas have got, obviously, the hubs where they can do such things, but you’ve actually got a bus to go out and about. How did that come about? 

Dan

The bus, our community bus project was a long running project since I was in school. It was something they were looking into, but at the time they didn’t have the funds for. And quite recently, about two years ago, during the first wave of the pandemic, the school turned around and said, ​“Look, we got kids in the eastern side of Sheppey that are struggling with the basic essentials, ie, Food, water, healthcare, stuff like that, and the parents were pretty much isolated in specific areas across Sheppey”. So the Oasis Academy originally set up a food bank system inside the school where the parents could go and get food, subsidised food for their children, etc. Shortly after that, they literally bought a bus from Chalkwell, I do believe, and renovated it and created a community bus out of it. From then on, they came to us through community chest funding, and we’ve been supporting them ever since. 

Chris Allen

So Emma, lots of organisations have come together to enable this bus project to happen, haven’t they? 

Emma

Yes. Salvation Army, they’re always helping with bus. Morrison’s community champions, they obviously donate a lot of food as well for the bus, who are brilliant, and it’s a long old day as well. They they try and be at each stop. It’s about an hour and a half, I think. So they do Warden, Leysdown, Sheerness, Minster. They help so many different people across the island. They’re helping around 42 families just in eastern Sheppey, but across the whole island, it’s about 85 families. Everyone knows about the Sheppey support bus, and it’s great for so many people, especially at a time, at the moment where everything’s so expensive. Even at Christmas, we helped fund some hampers for Christmas for the families of Eastern Sheppey. So we funded £1600 so they could basically have a big hamper of food to keep them going for Christmas. So that was really nice as well. 

Chris Allen

It seems like during the course of the Big Local programme as crises have arisen – and we’ve obviously got the cost of living crisis at the moment — you’ve been able to react as a Big Local area to local needs? 

Emma

Yeah, definitely. I think it’s definitely changed how we look at things. So I think we’re trying to do things in a slightly different way. I mean, when the hub is open, we would like to do something like a warm hub. I know, hopefully it’ll be spring by then, so it will be warmer. But yeah, there’s definitely, we’re definitely looking at projects and events slightly differently than maybe how we did before. 

Chris Allen

And Daniel, you’ve been involved in the programme a lot longer, I think, than Emma has as well, right from the beginning. But again, you’ve got this, you’re in place, you’ve got some, some source funding there. But again, you’re reacting to what you see coming along, and the police station hub that has arisen is one of the examples of that. 

Dan

Yeah, when, when we first heard that the police station hub was up for up for sale, I’d done the facts and figures, and I was sitting thinking to myself, this would benefit the eastern side of Sheppey, and ultimately, we could make a profit from it. Because the actual site itself has got two garages out the back, which we rent out to the local residents, and we gain a bit of revenue back from that. And over a long term period, we could easily break even and make profit from the actual building to keep other projects going in the long term. 

Chris Allen

And that obviously may be part of your thinking around legacy. About what will be left beyond Big Local when the when the money is gone. So do you hope that that will be that will feed into an ongoing support for people in the area? 

Emma

I know that there’s so many people that need help on that end of the island, and there are so many organisations who are willing to help. I just think that, yeah, when Big Local does end and we’ve still got that building. 

Chris Allen

So do you think the communities come together, then what you’re saying there, they’re just having this facility there means that they’ve been able to come together, being able to carry on coming together? And as well as the services you can provide through there, it’s actually just people getting to know each other. 

Emma

Even with the Sheppey support bus, I think once people have picked up their food, they always kind of hang around after have a chat, have a cup of tea. So again, when the community hub is open, they’re going to have a space where they can pop in, and it’s going to be a nice social aspect to it as well. 

Chris Allen

And you mentioned Daniel the CIO a few times as well. That’s your legacy organisation. And how will that sustain itself so it can still carry on providing services? Because obviously the Big Local money will one day all be spent up. 

Dan

When they basically take over the hub, the money we gain from the hub itself, from renting out their different garages and the rooms etc, will help then fund out the further projects at the Big Local and continue helping support in other organisations throughout eastern Sheppey. 

Chris Allen

And do you have any projects you’ve yet to do that you’re looking forward to? Or do you think now we’ve done it, ticking the box is all done. 

Dan

There’s a couple of projects that I’ve got in mind that I’m yet to raise with Emma and the chair, ie to do with employment and try and raise employment in the eastern side of Sheppey. As what Emma’s previously said that Eastern Sheppey is one of the most deprived areas in Sheppey, compared to Sheerness and Minster, where there’s plenty of jobs. People go into East church, Leysdown, Warden. There’s literally hardly any jobs around. So possibly funding into starting up, like startup businesses. Where people can come to us, get some, like, small amount of money just to get them to go, go forward with the startup process, and then continue on from there, and then they can start hiring out more people to work for them. 

Chris Allen

And Emma, anything on your wish list for the future? 

Emma

I mean, we’ve got a few ideas for when it is open, because there’s so many people interested at the moment. But, um, I think as well kind of following what Daniel said, um, we were saying before about kind of I.T., kind of sessions, because in Leysdown, there are a lot of elderly people who maybe have never used a computer, or even things like WhatsApp and things like that. And in Warden, you get a lot of families. So we’re saying it’d be nice to do drop in sessions for things like that, for people to learn. We actually did an engagement, a few engagement questions on our Facebook page last year, just asking what people would like out of the hub. And we had so many different options. And it just gave us so many ideas for what we could use it for. So even things like book clubs, cookery clubs…It’s basically just to get people out and about and to socialise. We always do events for Christmas as well, and it’ll be nice to do a lot of our events in our kind of space as well. So there’s so many possibilities. I think when it’s open. 

Chris Allen

Sounds like they’re not gonna be short of ideas are you. And people love coming together. Maybe that’s something they’ve discovered and learnt through the Big Local programme. But what about yourselves? You know, how have, how’s it has Big Local changed? Let’s start with you, Daniel, you’ve been involved a bit longer. So how, what have you seen in yourself because you’ve been involved such a long time? How has it changed you in the way you see yourself and the way you involved with the rest of the community? 

Dan

When I first started with Big Local back when I was 16, I was quite shy. I wouldn’t talk to anyone. I wouldn’t even do any public events, etc. And within the first year or two, the Big Local set up an event in one of the local one of the local primary schools to design the Big Local’s first logo. The partnership tasked both myself and one of the other partnership members to go in to the school, present to the children, the competition. The kids absolutely loved it, and that’s how we started off, getting the engagement going through the parents and teachers of schools and how we got our first logo through. 

Chris Allen

Your confidence, then is a big thing that’s that you’ve seen growing? 

Dan

Yeah, I actually helped my confidence boost up quite a bit. And from there on, I became vice chairman a few years ago, and been pushing from strength to strength ever since. And now I’m working for Morrisons. 

Chris Allen

Hence the name check earlier. And Emma, what about you? How has Big Local changed you or enabled you to learn? 

Emma

Yeah, it’s been really good, actually. So I’ve only been the worker for about a year and a half now, so I’m still fairly a newbie compared to some of you, like Daniel. But my retail, my background was always retail, so I’ve always kind of worked for the public. So now go into this sector, it’s completely different, and it’s been a massive learning curve, especially with renovating the community hub. Yeah, it’s, again, I’ve probably gained a lot of confidence as well, because I’ve kind of learned so much more, and I’ve learned new things. It’s been nice to meet new people, meet people in the area, because, again, I’ve only lived on the island for six years, so again, getting to know the whole island is it’s been really good. It’s been amazing. 

Chris Allen

You probably have to live there about 30 years before you really, you know, feel. Well, thank you both very much in indeed. And through you, thank you to all the people who work for, for Big Local over in eastern Sheppey. Obviously, you know you’ve got, you’ve got great plans for the future too, meeting local needs, and it all looks very, very exciting. 

Emma

Yeah, definitely. Thank you so much. 

Dan

Yeah, thank you so much. 

Chris Allen

That was Daniel Perium, and before that, we were hearing from Emma Donecliff from Eastern Sheppey Big Local. Your thoughts on that Beth? It’s quite a unique area, but they’ve got these really special places now that they can go to. 

Beth Lazenby

Yeah. So I think it sounds like the support bus has been providing a space for the community for a long time, and through that, they’ve obviously seen how important it is to have a more sort of fixed place as well for the community to come together. And it’s just yeah, great to see those different kinds of spaces and how they can reach different parts of the community through those. 

Chris Allen

Thanks Beth indeed, yes, and that’s all a big part of the legacy of the area. So next week, where are we off to? 

Beth Lazenby

So next week, we’ll be going to East Coseley. And I think you’ll be joined live in the studio next week with a couple of people from, yeah, East Coseley Big Local talking about a loneliness project. 

Chris Allen

Indeed, it’s only just down the road from Wolverhampton. So we thought we’d get them in the studio, which would be good fun to do. And just to say, before I forget, you can find out more information about the Eastern Sheppey projects in the show notes as ever, and we look forward to you joining us next time on the community power podcast, brought to you by Local Trust, discovering what happens when you give local people the money, the power and the assets to make a difference to their neighbourhoods.