Local groups encouraged to seek Lottery funding for heritage projects

Following the official launch last week of the borough's new Heritage Strategy, Enfield Council is encouraging community groups to propose ideas for local heritage projects that could attract funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF). Recent changes to NLHF priorities mean that projects in Enfield should stand a higher chance of success when bidding for funds.

Reciting poems and singing praises

The celebration to mark the adoption of the new heritage strategy document, Making Enfield, was held at the Dugdale Centre last Tuesday and featured recitations by poets Anthony Fisher and Keith Mowatt and a performance by Reggae star Janet Kay, who lives in Edmonton.

Speaking at the event, deputy council leader Ian Barnes emphasised the wide-ranging nature of "heritage":

"Heritage is about what people value and want to preserve for future generations. However this is not just about buildings and monuments – although they too are important. It’s also about giving recognition to our diverse and culturally significant communities, singing the praises of local heroes, marking important moments in history and giving thanks to those who can demonstrate how heritage can make people, places and the local economy thrive."

Cllr Barnes added:

"As we move forward with our Heritage Strategy and Local Plan proposals, we will ensure our plans are fully inclusive and strike a balance between conservation and much-needed growth, with communities at the heart of any proposals."

Enfield to be a Lottery funding focus area

One of the high points of the celebratory event was the announcement that the National Lottery Heritage Fund (the new name for the Heritage Lottery Fund) has identified Enfield as one of 13 local authority areas that will be prioritised over the next five years. As explained in the NLHF's Strategic Funding Framework for 2019 to 2024, Enfield meets both the criteria used to select these priority areas: to date per capita spending on projects in the borough by the NLHF has been low, and Enfield has areas with high rates of deprivation.

Our local teams will work strategically with stakeholders, from within heritage and beyond, to identify the best way to support organisations to meet local needs. This will include, if appropriate, soliciting applications for priority heritage projects, and offering micro-grants as successfully trialled in Barrow-in-Furness in 2017.

The new funding framework also places increased emphasis on inclusivity, which should open up opportunities for the many small community groups operating in our borough:

We will ask every project to achieve our new inclusion outcome: “A wider range of people will be involved in heritage. We will expect all projects to take steps to reach out to new people, to share heritage beyond their organisation, and to embed inclusive practice in a way that is proportionate to the size of our grant and appropriate for the type of project. We will provide new guidance and case studies to help applicants understand how we can help them contribute to making heritage inclusive.

Reflecting the priorities of National Lottery players, we will have a particular focus on reaching those millions of people in the UK who are typically under-represented in heritage or who face barriers to being involved. Through our outreach support, we will particularly encourage and enable applications from organisations that work with, and seek to benefit:

• disabled people
• young people
• people from minority ethnic and LGBT+ communities
• people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Organisations applying to us for the first time will also be a priority for our help. We will support these organisations to explore and share their heritage. We’ll also expect mainstream heritage organisations to create more opportunities to collaborate with them to deliver inclusive projects.

What sort of projects does the NLHF support?

The NLHF website defines heritage as "anything from the past that you value and want to pass on to future generations" and gives examples of types of projects relating to the following types of heritage:

• nature
• designed landscapes
• landscapes and the countryside
• oral history
• cultural traditions
• community archaeology
• historic buildings, monuments and the historic environment
• museums, libraries and archives
• acquiring new objects
• commemorations and celebrations
• industrial, maritime and transport.

Call for projects in Enfield

Enfield Council is inviting proposals for projects to submit to the NLHF:

This is a great opportunity for individuals and groups to come forward with projects to investigate and celebrate heritage across Enfield. Heritage can be anything from the past that you value and want to pass on to future generations.

Email your heritage project ideas to  by Wednesday 15 January 2020 and mark your message ‘Call for projects’.

Once you have sent them to us, we will continue to support you and help develop your ideas by:

• sending you useful sources of information about Enfield
• inviting you to a workshop with an NLHF officer, to give you guidance on how to apply
• hosting a session three months after the call for projects deadline, covering common problems with developing funding applications