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South Holland Radio

South Holland Radio is a volunteer-run community-interest company. It is based in Spalding, Lincolnshire and provides a range of community services in the local area known as South Holland. From humble beginnings as a small community radio station in the back of a shop in 2005, the organisation now delivers a range of community services with the help of around 200 volunteers.

“It’s a gorgeous building. It just needs a bit of TLC. And the fact is, going into community use, it’s going to benefit everybody" - Alan North

Turning Spalding station into a community hub

Communitybuilders provided a £74,500 investment to help South Holland Radio turn the underused Victorian train station in Spalding into a community hub comprising of a radio studio, a help and advice centre, a community cafe and office space for the local third sector. The investment will be used to carry out initial feasibility and design work on the building, develop a business plan and carry out a community consultation. Once the first stage has been completed, South Holland Radio may come back to Communitybuilders for a further investment to carry out the full building works.

The train station is currently leased from Network Rail by East Midland Trains. However, only a small part is used by the train company and South Holland Radio has secured a lease on the remaining of the building. The plan is to use the space on the ground floor for the radio studio, advice centre and community cafe, and rent out the space on the first and second floors to local third sector organisations.

“It’s a gorgeous building. It just needs a bit of TLC. And the fact is, going into community use, it’s going to benefit everybody”, says Alan North, Company Secretary of South Holland Radio. He’s worked in radio broadcasting for 30 years and got involved with the station in 2005. Back then it was operating out of the back of a shop, but while looking for new premises Alan, along with company Director Rosanna Barker, came across a scheme funded by the Department for Transport which was aiming to put disused stations back into use. “We had to apply and go in front of a panel”, Alan remembers. “We were up against stiff competition because the local authority wanted it and Age Concern wanted it. But we were successful. That was about 2006.”

A range of community services

Since then the organisation has expanded its services beyond the community radio station. “Through our relationships with the community we realised that there were many people who wanted to join us, but they didn’t want to do the radio. So we thought, ‘we’ve got all these people wanting to do stuff’, and that’s how we got involved in South Holland Helping Hands and South Holland Reaching Every Community”, Alan says.

Helping Hands is a handyperson and community outreach scheme and Reaching Every Community is a support and language scheme for migrants. The radio station also provides advice, guidance and training in multimedia to the local community. Rosanna Barker, Company Director says “anyone is welcome to come in and have a go and we’ll support them”. 

Raising funds

Since 2006 South Holland Radio has been attempting to raise enough funds to get the project off the ground. And now, finally with the Communitybuilders support the project can start properly. Ian Watson, Project Manager, says: “I don’t think we would’ve gone forward without the Communitybuilders grant. What this has done is reengage other funders and make the whole thing gel together. We’ve now been able to tie down nearly £750,000 pounds from other funders.”

Since getting commitment from Communitybuilders, South Holland Radio has secured funding from Network Rail and the Railway Heritage Trust to refurbish the ground floor. That work has already started and is set to be completed by March 2010. This will provide room for the radio station, the advice centre and the community cafe. The aim is then to have the feasibility study completed and a full business plan written by January 2010 so that building work on the upper floors can start in 2010.

When complete the project aims to meet all the criteria for Communitybuilders – multi-purpose, community-led and providing a range of inclusive activities from a building that will act as a centre for the whole neighbourhood. Rosanna also sees an addition benefit with the project: “There’s nothing more spooky for young people than coming to the station on their own in the evening. When this is complete it will be lit up and there will be somewhere they can sit and wait for their parents.”

A great idea then - turning a working train station into a community anchor - and with Communitybuilders money it looks like it will become a reality.