£3million secured for Caistor project

Having been successfully awarded an increased Community Ownership Fund Levelling-Up grant of £500,000, and satisfied its key funder, the National Lottery Heritage Fund with a revised scope of works, it is full steam ahead for the project.

Working with the agreed principal contractor for the project, Messenger - part of the BCR Group - and the team who recently undertook and completed the cutting-edge conservation work at Lincoln Medieval Bishops’ Palace, Greenwood Projects - the firm that has supported 2-4 Market Place from day one with Graham Tait Project Managing - and Another Kind Architects, CDCT’s company secretary Neil Castle said they are excited to officially get the renovations underway.

Neil said: “To say we’re are delighted to now have the funding to bring these buildings back to life, share their heritage and make them accessible for everyone in the process is an understatement. Our mission, not only with 2-4 Market Place, but certainly with this project acting as a catalyst, is to improve the economic sustainability of our historic market town.

"Caistor has seen a recent boom in businesses, both up-scaling and taking up vacant units, so to be able to further add to this enterprise by providing opportunities for community activities, social space and to help bring additional tourism to the town is incredibly important to us as a Trust. The diverse and vibrant mixed-use development scheme will include the repair and conservation of the complex of historic buildings, transforming 2-4Market Place into a space the whole community can be proud of and embrace as their own.”

Having been vacant for several years, and being noted on the building's ‘at risk’ register as needing immediate attention, this funding comes at a vital time. The restored buildings, in their full glory, will create spaces for retail units, which could include a restaurant/cafe, a community space for functions, exhibitions and other community activities, self-catering holiday lets, spaces that can be used as offices or arts-and-crafts business units, storage for local archival materials and a space for the Trust to work from.

Neil added: “With a revised plan now in place, prioritising the completion of the market square facing shopfronts of 2, 3 and 4 Market Place, the community room above number 4, two holiday lets above numbers 2 and 3, the new core service building and the restored courtyard, the continued collaboration between the Trust and its valued partners will support the aim to get work started by early May, subject to the required paperwork being in place.”