‘Community centres across North Wales play a crucial role in supporting the most vulnerable members of our society’

Funding from the Community Facilities Programme has helped community centres – as well as a range of other facilities - to make improvements, repairs and redevelopments across Wales.

Each year projects can apply for larger grants up to £300,000 to cover the cost of upgrades to their community facilities, as well as small grants up to £25,000.

In the financial year 2021/22, 71 projects across Wales were awarded grants totalling nearly £7.7m.

The CFP funds the purchase and improvement of facilities which provide opportunities for local people to improve their day to day lives.

Projects that have benefitted in North Wales include Menter Ty’n Llan in Gwynedd being awarded £250,000 to refurbish a local pub to make a community hub including substantial repairs to roof, lighting, ceilings, downpipes and guttering, and asbestos removal; Canolfan Glanhwfa on Anglesey being awarded £300,000 for the renovation of a Chapel that the Minister recently officially opened; Neuadd Dyfi in Gwynedd being awarded £250,000 to repair the roof and lower carbon footprint through insulation and production of solar power.

Earlier today (April 21) the Minister for Social Justice visited the official opening of Llanrumney Hall Community Trust’s Roundhouse Health & Wellbeing Centre.

The Trust received a grant of £250,000 in 2012/22 to purchase and install the community centre, which they refer to as the Roundhouse, that is now benefitting a wide range of people.

The project has helped people become more physically active, tackled loneliness and increased volunteering opportunities.

The Trust works with a variety of groups benefitting the local community, including a knitting club, gardening clubs, more than 50 classes and return to fitness programmes.

Minister for Social Justice Jane Hutt said: “I am so pleased that the Community Facilities Programme has been able to help deliver Llanrumney Hall Community Trust’s vision for the future and know it will make a massive difference supporting the health & wellbeing of the local community.

“We understand that spaces like this are vital to the local community, providing somewhere that clubs can meet, health and fitness programmes can run from and classes people can learn from.

“Community centres play a pivotal role in supporting the most vulnerable members of our society and we are committed to supporting them, through the likes of our Community Facilities Programme, so they can continue providing a vital service to communities across Wales.”

The Ty’n Llan pub closed in 2017 and left a huge gap in the village of Llandwrog, as there are no other social facilities or places for the community to meet.  In 2021, the pub came up for sale and a group of local residents came together to form a community benefit society called Menter Ty’n Llan. The Society succeeded, with the help of over 1,000 shareholders to raise enough funds to buy the pub. After the pub was restored, it now accommodates many activities including an over 60s lunch club, quiz and bingo evenings for all the community, a chair exercise club, a book club, a Welsh learner’s group and a young people’s group

Chair of the management committee of Menter Ty’n Llan, the community benefit society that owns and runs the pub, Caryl Elin Lewis said: “The range of activities offered at the pub has created a real sense of community and helped to improve people’s health and wellbeing through volunteering, socialising and learning new skills. 

She added: “The support from the Welsh Government CFP fund has been invaluable in helping us to safeguard the building for all the community to enjoy and to facilitate and run these important groups that bring local people together. People who would never have previously visited Ty’n Llan as a pub, now visit on a regular basis to participate in activities and meet friends. It has been life changing for many and certainly improved people’s wellbeing.  We are very grateful to our funders.”