The Hub Lyme Regis

About this group

Welcome to The Hub, Lyme Regis – a large project in a small town!

The Hub (www.hublyme.co.uk) is a new project of the Lyme Regis Development Trust, to renovate an old abandoned building and make it energy efficient, sustainable and a progressive centre for young people in the Lyme Regis area.

The Hub's energy strategy is an important and holistic part of a much larger vision. The Hub's significance is far deeper than good energy practice. It reaches into the heart of our community, valuing young people and giving them the best start in life we can. It will be part of the glue that binds us together.

As a multi-partnership, we will work with the community and region to offer inclusive, inspirational, enjoyable and educational activities & services for young people. It will be a centre of excellence and part of the Hub’s long-term sustainability will be to produce and conserve its own energy and be an exemplar of good practice to the whole community. 

This is a very special moment in our town. We have kept a building in community hands and made a fresh start, coming together in a spirit of enthusiasm and support for young people. The Energyshare opportuntity has come at a perfect time to launch The Hub on a sustainable financial footing and contribute to a new and progressive beginning, symbolic of the way communities can move forward.

Thanks to all the local support so far, we are now in the competition final for the first ever Energyshare grant, sponsored by River Cottage and British Gas. With your vote, we could win £100,000 to help make our vision a reality.

We are a small town competing with some large cities. They will have lots of local support and we wish them well. We have an excellent project in a rural area but fewer locals to give support. To stand a chance, we need people from far and wide to share our vision, not just about energy but also supporters of young people and how to tackle their rural isolation and sparse cultural opportunities.

The Hub has just become a live project, already rolling and not theory. The town is determined to make this a success and we are committed to The Hub whether we get this grant or not. However, when the hype has died down, the Energyshare grant will really help an important community initiative keep going when the honeymoon is over. This is what is special about The Hub and Energyshare support. Green energy and its message is good everywhere and will certainly be promoted by us, but in The Hub, green energy could be the financial deal breaker of success or decline for the whole social project (as happened before when the Lyme Regis Club for Young People declined in part due to high costs and lack of a good energy infrastructure).

We are in the large Energyshare project category and only one project will win this. We really need your vote for The Hub Lyme Regis.

Please support us now and vote for The Hub Lyme Regis between 15 November and 3 December 2011.

Our story and Energyshare ambitions:

BACKGROUND

Lyme Regis is a small rural seaside town of 3,700 people, set on the World Heritage Jurassic Coast, bordering Dorset and Devon. It appears quaint and idyllic. The reality is different. It has a high retirement population, many second homes, high house prices and a low waged economy. Incomes largely depend on tourism, the agriculture, food and crafts in the hinterland and services for old people. There has been no youth club for more than 5 years and still no skate park after 30 years of requests. Young people have been poorly served for many years and travel costs make it expensive to access facilities out of town.

The Hub was built as a church hall in the 1920s. It is primarily of red brick cavity wall construction with no insulation. The local Boys Club/Club for Young People owned and ran it from the 1970s to 2005. It had few resources so only essential maintenance took place.  The Club declined and closed and the building was put up for auction.

In response to strong public demand, the Lyme Regis Development Trust www.lrdt.co.uk saved the public building in October 2010, to use it as a centre for young people, with the support of two key partners – The Woodroffe School www.woodroffe.dorset.sch.uk (who were able to fund the building purchase with the Out of Schools Service) and the Dorset County Council Youth Service www.dorsetforyou.com/18739

Over 1,000 people attended our open day at the beginning of this year, when the public, organisations and young people were invited to come and give their ideas about the future of the youth centre. It was named The Hub by a public vote at this time. 

KEY OBJECTIVES

• Create an inclusive building for young people to enjoy, meet friends, access services and participate in activities and hobbies that may inspire them for the rest of their lives and possibly make a career out of the experience.

• Develop an income portfolio that will help make the project sustainable e.g. renewable energy generation, run a café for young people and periodically for the public (run by young people, with training opportunities in the catering industry), rent space in the Hub – prioritising local and visiting youth organisations and secondly to community groups.

• Work as a multi-partnership, to include the Lyme Regis Development Trust, The Woodroffe School, and Dorset County Council Youth Service, alongside community organisations and individuals, in order to tap expertise and diversify our offer. The Hub will be an integrated and comprehensive facility for young people.

• Offer training and work experience through our peer mentoring, volunteering and trainee/apprenticeship schemes, in areas such as the arts, sports, café and youth work.

• Share good practice with our partners, including sustainable energy use.

PARTNERS, ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED AND ACTIVITIES

Apart from The Woodroffe School and Youth Service, numerous organisations want to work in the Hub, including:

• B Sharp (www.bsharp.uk.com) - a fantastic outward looking local music organisation for young people, with a regionally respected skill cascade model, can have a home in The Hub. Half of B Sharp's management group are young people - B Sharp works with young people for young people.  B Sharp will work with Hub partners to share this model in other Hub activities.

• The Police will do outreach work to compliment and add value to their work with young people in the region.

• Brownies.

• Junior Football.

• Lyme Youth Theatre.

• Lyme Regis ArtsFest (www.lymeregisartsfest.com) can exhibit young peoples work there.

• PCT health and well-being.

Young people have been consulted throughout The Hub's development and are actively shaping the Hub's future.

The Hub will be a place for young people to meet friends, to have gigs and go dancing, with a café and a multi sports hall…. youth arts, summer schemes for all ages, a recording studio, a place to stay for visiting youth groups, foam parties, and sk8 events… Numerous agencies will be able to do outreach and offer advice and counseling for those who want it. The potential is massive. It will be a fantastic resource, providing real jobs, work experience, internships and training opportunities that young people living in a rural area so desperately need.

With the new ownership, culture and multi partnership provision within the Hub, it is a perfect time to show how progressive this new facility will be. Sustainable energy use/production is part of our package of ‘vision, new start and setting examples’.

The Hub is an independent youth facility. Most towns have youth facilities run by their local authority. The Hub will have help from the County Youth Service and a service level agreement, but ultimately will have to find its own way to be sustainable. This is one reason why renewable energy and its efficient use is so critical to the Hub. We cannot rely on revenue grant support in a climate of economic cutbacks.

ENERGYSHARE AND THE HUB

What will the £100,000 be used for?

• Installation of a Photovoltaic system - array of 46 PV Panels, full system, controls & meters - 12kWp. A photovoltaic system will generate renewable electricity in excess of our needs, allowing us to export power and earn an income through the Feed in Tariff (FiT). This is an economic and environmental priority. Our high south facing roof is ideal for this purpose.

• A new heating system, combining an Air source heat pump and low energy condensing gas boiler as a comprehensive and integrated system. 3 zones and 3 fan coil convector heaters and 2 de-stratification fans; all controls, valves & timers will allow us to heat the Hub with great efficiency, reducing our carbon footprint to a minimum while creating a warm and welcoming environment for users in the winter. The Air source heat pump (powered by solar panels) and insulation will maintain the temperature at a level high enough to keep damp out and be easier to warm up when it needs a boost for use in the winter.

• Cavity wall insulation - Cavity walling is extensive within The Hub and is relatively cheap to insulate, creating good value for money.

Income from the FiT will be reinvested in the Hub by contributing to the running costs for the Hub – forward maintenance programme, insurance, utilities, staffing, training. The FiT will contribute to the sustainability of this community facility.

If these incomes combined with local authority annual revenue grants exceed expenditure, income from electricity generation will be ring-fenced and used to reinvest in energy technology within the Hub to improve efficiency and/or help pay for our energy manager to promote green power to the wider community (e.g. by having a green energy powered music festival in the Hub – combining solar and pedal power).

We have a wish list of structural and appliance improvements that are beyond our present budgets, even with Energyshare help. FiT would assist this expansion of energy efficiencies within the Hub.

EDUCATION AND ENERGY CULTURE

Apart from equipment, we plan to create awareness about energy, its production and the environment and change wasteful habits in individuals and organisations.

We have an excellent relationship with The Woodroffe School. We will be working closely with them to integrate our energy strategy with their environmental curriculum and ‘Eco’ club activities. Woodroffe holds the prestigious  Eco Schools Green Flag award and is keen that The Hub is seen as a symbol of sustainability.

We will hold bi-annual Energy open days in the Hub to share and understand what we do, how we monitor and control energy production & use. Relevant energy organisations will be invited to have stands/displays/give talks – to educate the public, businesses and partners.

The Hub will hold an annual Green Energy powered Music Festival to promote green energy. We will use a mixture of solar and interactive pedal power to operate the PA system and visuals. This Music Festival will be a partnership with The Hub and B Sharp local youth music project.

The Youth Service is fully on board with the aims of Energshare and will be working alongside us to ensure good energy practice – training staff, volunteers and participants to be energy conscious and not wasteful – e.g. switching off equipment and lights when not in use rather than on standby, know how to use and control the new heating system etc.

Creating good energy habits in young people will be something they will bring home with them and share with family and friends, and carry with them for the rest of their lives. The Hub will help create a good understanding of energy issues at an influential time of young peoples lives.

We will be developing ways to share good practice with our partners and the wider community through meetings, newsletters, press releases, blogs, website information and social media sites.

IMPACT

Approximately 5,000 young people will benefit from the Energyshare project over the 20 year life of equipment purchased. (The Woodroffe School currently has 1076 students. 5 pyramid schools total 600 students, some Colyton Grammar School students are from Lyme and there are a few young people who are out of school = approx 1,700. 180 new students join Woodroffe each year).

Lyme’s population is approx 3,700. The Hub will increase social mixing and cohesion by involving community organisations and individuals as volunteers and event organisers. Young people will feel valued, leading to a reduction in anti-social behaviour and people’s fear of crime. The Hub will indirectly impact the whole community.

The Hub will not just be for young people in Lyme Regis. Young people come to school here from a wide catchment area, reaching deep into the rural villages of West Dorset and East Devon. It will be an important resource for many isolated young people.

The Hub will offer young people opportunities that they would not otherwise access. These activities and services will build confidence, knowledge and friendships. The Hub will increase social mixing within peer groups and across the community. It will offer work experience, training, peer mentoring and volunteer schemes that can be evidenced and used to gain work or further educational opportunities. The Hub will be an exemplar of sustainable energy use/production. More than 30 other objectives in the Dorset Community Strategy 2007-2016, West Dorset Community Plan 2006-2010 and Local Area Agreement are addressed by The Hub. All these outcomes will create pride and reinforce motivation in our ‘can do’ community.

PROGRESS SO FAR

We have secured £120,000 to replace the roof and create better access to and within the building (funded by The Jubilee Peoples Millions Big Lottery, Lyme Regis Town Council and the G F Eyre Charitable Trust). Work will start in December to create disabled ramps and lifts, and a new roof goes on in Jan/Feb 2012. This will be an ideal time to install Solar panels, making use of the scaffold and road closure in place for the roof replacement.

The building has 2 floors. The upper floor already has a stage and large hall suitable for arts and indoor sports activities. We want to develop our media capacity to include recording facilities for B Sharp and other music/visual users.

The ground floor has a kitchen, games room/café area and toilets. Young people and volunteers have been working through the summer to decorate this area. The Lyme Regis Development Trust has supported young people from its beginning 15 years ago. With a grant from the South West Regional Development Agency, it bought a former Spar shop and converted it into a youth café called ‘InSPARation’. This service has now moved to the ground floor of the Hub and is open at a very basic level 3 evenings a week. We want to develop the kitchen so that we can run the café as a training place for cooking and service and open it e.g. at weekends and the summer for the public, giving experience in a live situation to trainees. This will also create an income to help run the whole project.

The café can also be a vehicle for promoting healthy eating, bringing in local chefs and health educators to run workshops.

The old InSPARation café building will be rented out, giving a reliable income to subsidise the Hub project.

As an independent project, The Hub needs to be as self sufficient as possible. Reliance on grants to support running costs is unsustainable in difficult economic times. Creating an income from electricity production will be an important part of our sustainable income strategy.

We hope that you have been inspired by our vision and aspiration.

We wish all Energyshare projects eventual success. We have the opportunity to make a massive impact now, at the launch of a new beginning. Thank you for taking the time to read our story. We hope you like it! 

Please click our support tag now and we will email you at voting time to remind you about voting, between 15 Nov and 3 December.