A new chapter for Bitts Park Lodge
BITTS PARK LODGE
A New Chapter…
by Stephen Murphy
Bitts Park Lodge, situated in Bitts park, has been in a sorry state for many years; however, with lots of chatter, lots of will and lots of fight, a plan has been pulled together.
Stephen Dunn, Community Engagement Officer from Cumberland Council, has been instrumental in pushing and fighting for a new project to move forward which will see the Lodge brought back into use, hopefully by September next year.
Now this place has sat empty for over a decade, so I can only imagine the state of it, especially after the flood damage in 2015.
Formerly a parkkeeper’s lodge, thought to have been built in 1902, it is a stunning building set in an amazing space, but to bring it back to life is going to be one helluva job.
A partnership has been formed with local authority, local business and local education providers and others to help make this a reality, these include Cumberland Council, Story Contracting, Story Homes, Carlisle College and Habitat for Humanity Great Britain.
Ste who has been banging the door down for years to see the building come back into use and see this project come to life, said “The idea behind this is to prove the concept on something like this works, take a derelict building like this which is owned by the local authority, you then plug into local industry; in this case and on this project, it’s Story Construction and their supply chain, they have about 20 companies behind this. What that means is they are going to supply the materials; how they afford to do this is via Social Conscience Money.”
“What that is is when a company is working in the area, they lay aside a percentage to go into the community, so we’ve kind of joined up with them with their money and their resources, and we have joined forces with Carlisle College. The construction students will learn and apply their skills and crafts, putting this building back together.”
“Story Contracting is coming in September to make this empty building safe. Then, alongside expert instructors and lectures, the construction students will pass their coursework by putting this back together.”
“They will turn it into a tea room, where hospitality students will then come and learn their skills. The idea is that you have this partnership where the local authority, local business, industry and educators work together on things that are good for the community.”
“In the first instance, it serves as an educational platform, and what we want is to try and plug into as much of the curriculum as we can. We aim to take learning out of the classroom and harness all that energy, that potential and that learning into the community, enabling people to do wonderful things beyond a desk or four walls, in this case, here in Carlisle.”
What the lodge project will do is provide roof-of-concept and demonstrate this partnership working for the community.”
Why not just knock it down?
“You know what, a lot of people wanted to do that. And in this day and age where money lets us all down, this is another reason we want to work in a way that gets money off the table, because it’s all about joining together and sharing our resources.
It’s a good question because we are very risk-averse now; there’s either too much risk or we can’t afford to do it.
Well, we can afford to do it now. One of the most exciting aspects is proving we can do it; it doesn’t have to be all about money. You’re right, people think ‘why not just knock it down , but there’s an opportunity for us to do something dead ace.”
Funding
“The great thing is it’s not going to come out of the public purse. The costs on things like this are materials, but Story construction and Story homes with their supply chain will supply all of the materials. So there won’t be any cost to the public there.
The workforce will be the students who will be given vocational pathways into apprenticeships, which in this day and age is something we are really lacking in and is something we are really wanting to encourage in a really creative way”
“The beauty of this project is that across Cumbria, we have many great assets like this that are sitting doing nothing, and our plan right off the bat is to replicate this across the region.
“We want to create a model that can travel far and wide. We have a meeting with people from South Australia about this model next month. We have a link with Friendsburg College, which Carlisle is twinned with. Next year, they are sending students over to learn with us.
“We are also working with Habitat for Humanity, which operates in over 60 countries.
The first thing they said was that they hadn’t seen such an ambitious project as this before.
They want to help us create a global blueprint, and you think WOW, but why not?
I can’t believe it hasn’t happened already, but in today’s society it’s hard because people can’t see beyond potential risk or finances.
I’m sick of money being the first, second and third sort of currency, because it’s let us down. The real currency we have is potential, energy and ideas.”
“I’m also in talks with secondary schools to find out how we can link up citizenship with work experience. Let’s get Citizenship out of the classroom, where pupils and students can start to learn and really have a say in their society and their community, which they will inherit.
Let’s start practising to fly that plane now before they get out, and they have to start flying it for real, eh”
Leader of Cumberland Council, Cllr Mark Fryer, said:
“We are delighted that The Lodge will once again be open to the public. This partnership has the potential to demonstrate how the public, private, and education sectors can work together in different ways to create broader community benefits. With significant housing pressures across Cumberland, this could also be an effective way of bringing run-down properties back into use while giving local students invaluable experience.”
Hopefully it all comes together smoothly, and all will be ready for next summer with the opening of the tea-room; and we can’t wait, I mean who doesn’t love cake.
This project is ultimately all about giving back to the city and to the people of the city, ironic as when Bitts Park was officially opened in 1893, it was called Peoples Park.
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