E4I Grant: £2000
Poor health is causing concern in the former mining community of West Cornforth in County Durham where deaths from heart disease are 20 per cent higher than the national average, and deaths from heart attacks 44 per cent greater.
Now the West Cornforth Community Association is aiming to tackle this by increasing exercise and sporting activity in the village.
Management committee member Karen Lynn says: “People in Cornforth are isolated from leisure facilities due to poor transport6 links and financial reasons.
The Association runs the Miners Welfare Hall and has organised events such as dances, village shows, summer fairs, play schemes and mobile film shows.
It also offers village groups room for meetings, some sporting events such as badminton and snooker, and a venue for educational and social classes.
However, it felt the centre was under-used, and that a community gym & one of the most requested facilities & would complement new football pitches behind the centre. There are also plans for an extension to house changing rooms.
The existing gym has been decorated and an open day was held for villagers at the beginning of June 2006. Additional funding has helped to equip the gym, and there has been an enthusiastic response.
Karen Lynn says: "The support from Enterprise for Inclusion has been extremely helpful. The monetary grant was not as large as we would have liked, but the advisory support was highly beneficial."
"The management committee at the centre are all volunteers so the help with business planning was extremely useful and everyone learned a great deal from the process."