Ulverston's lost too much, it's time for something new...
It's time to create The Spot!
We’re a diverse crew of volunteers who’ve come together to submit a Community Ownership Fund bid to buy the The Old Mart on Victoria Road.
This former kitchen showroom is a brilliantly-accessible building all on one level, by our bus stops & near the train station too.
The big plan is to create...
A Spot for SUPPORT with space for services including the Ulverston Food Project and other support groups providing help, care and friendship for anyone who needs it.
A Spot for HEALTH & WELLBEING with room for a multi-purpose hall for table tennis, dance, circus skills… anything that needs a bit of space and height.
A Spot for MAKING with workshop space for our festival town.
And a ONE-STOP Spot - having different types of support and activities in one place will mean it's more than the sum of its parts.
We think it’s all do-able with help from Ulverston company Digital Woodoo, an expanding business who hope to be a founding tenant. They plan to create interior ‘pods’ within the Mart that are affordable to heat and maintain as an innovative way to bring this big old building back to life.
What about the money?!
The Community Ownership Fund is a Government pot for buying community assets. We've been encouarged to work on a joint bid for its final round (expected late May but dates not yet announced). Our group - including members of the Ulverston Food Project, Lantern Festival and the Resilience Group, are working to bid for £440,000 - for this we need £110,000 in match funding. We're well on our way with some amazing pledges from local companies but we also need YOUR help!
We hope to Crowdfund £5,000 to help us reach our target and also show the purse-string holders that other people think it's a good idea too.
£1, £5, £10... more - truly it will all help get us to the finish.
If we pull this off, each donor will get their name on our Spot of Good Cheer, a wall of welcome for users of our community Spot - hopefully including YOU!
We also want and need you to become Friends of The Spot - our membership group to show your support for a new space for the town. Friends will get updates and - we hope - get involved in many ways. Please click the box as you pledge and pop in your email so we can keep in touch.
It's a bold bid but with your help, there's every chance we can get this building. And have something bought by the community, for the community. Our Spot.