People and communities
Council extends lease for Caldmore Community House
Published on
Walsall Council has granted a 15-year lease to Caldmore Community House in Carless Street, Walsall, which offers local residents the opportunity to work, learn and play together in a community garden space.
The lease extension means that this popular community group, which is part of Caldmore Village Festival Limited, is able to continue with their work.
Caldmore Community Garden was created in 2011 by a group of volunteers from Caldmore Village Festival Group who approached whg (Walsall Housing Group) and Walsall Council with the idea to transform a derelict piece of land in the middle of Caldmore into a welcoming urban oasis, open to everyone in the local community.
In 2016, the group obtained a lease on the former school caretaker’s house from Walsall Council and started refurbishment work on the building. Now known as Caldmore Community House, it was officially opened later that year and since then has become an integral part of the service provided by the garden, hosting community meetings, workshops, classes, children’s activities and holiday play schemes and training sessions.
In 2022, the garden was visited more than 25,000 times, and remains open six days a week thanks to the funding from the National Lottery Community Fund (Reaching Communities), Tudor Trust, Children in Need, People’s Health Trust Active Communities Fund and West Midlands Combined Authority Green Grants Programme. It employs two full-time members of staff, three part time project delivery workers and encourages community participation with more than 50 regular volunteers helping out. In 2022, the garden was awarded a prestigious Green Flag community award and an RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood award.
“ We’re pleased to continue our support to Caldmore Village Festival and very grateful and appreciative of the important service it provides to the community especially in its work with volunteers, schools, nurseries, fostering agencies and home-schooling parents.
Extending this lease helps them continue their work to bring diverse communities together and help promote sustainability, environmental responsibility, health and wellbeing, and community participation and volunteering.
As a Council, we work with many community and voluntary associations both in the medium and longer term. We want to continue supporting these much-needed community services and it’s something reflected in our recently launched network of Walsall Connected hubs bringing customer services directly to the community.
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“ We are delighted and over-joyed with the lease extension and it will help us in our long-term planning and help us attract longer-term funding in the future.
On behalf of Board, I’d like to thank Walsall Council for extending the lease. In particular, I’d like to thank Council Leader, Councillor Mike Bird, and Councillor Adrian Andrew for all his support, as well as Shaun Darcy, Director of Finance, Corporate Landlord and Assurance at the Council.
This garden is a green space for everyone to enjoy and it’s open nearly every day of the year. It’s where everyone has the chance to contribute and realise their potential, a green space for joy, learning and play, and a meeting place of people of all cultures, ages, abilities and backgrounds.
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Ends
Notes to editors
Caption for photograph (left to right): Mohammed Mustaqeem Shah (CVF Trustee) , Cllr Adrian Andrew, Fiona Kells (CVF Treasurer and Garden volunteer), Mohammed Arif (CVF Chair), Shaun Darcy, Akhlaq Hussain (whg), Jeanette Jervis (Garden volunteer), Estelle Fisher (Assistant Development Worker), Anna Webster (Project Manager) - crouching at the front
