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Facilities
Newstead has the benefit of a range of facilities on its doorstep, which include a Community Centre, A Primary School, Surestart, Newstead Abbey grounds, a shop and Post Office, The Church, a pavilion and sports field, Turton Court (warden aided home), a mobile library, community allotments, The CAST project, RCAN support, a train station, The Miners Welfare and The Station Hotel public house.
Feedback to the Parish plan indicated that many people were not aware of how to access some of the above facilities. More people expressed issues around limitations of access to some of the above facilities.
Although having excellent facilities including an IT Suite, The Community Centre and Café are not open in the evenings and weekends.
Restricted opening times and access to the grounds of Newstead Abbey has denied locals a facility that has been enjoyed for generations.
Although the sports field, cricket nets and pavilion are a superb facility, these are not being used for the full benefit of the community.
There was a lot of interest in the need for an all-year-round, all-weather floodlit sports facility. Residents also expressed frustration that it was uneconomical to use GBC "passport to leisure" schemes, or their swimming facilities as they were too far away and not linked by public transport.
It has been important for Newstead Village to retain its Post Office as many people rely on it for payment of bills and to access their accounts, as well as its core services.
GBC Civic Centre at Arnold is difficult to access for Newstead residents, with no direct public transport route and the Post Office is the only option for many to pay priority bills such as council tax.
However the shop has restricted opening times and is not open in the evenings. The Village also used to have a take-away but this has been closed since 2007.
The Newstead Action Group(NAG), who help to run the church, have recently had to make the decision to sell the Church Hall which has been a facility of the village for decades due to its poor state of repair.
However this will enable the church itself to have essential repairs and remain viable. The NAG has also continued the project of re-landscaping the church grounds for communal use and the community has seen a number of open events hosted there in 2008. NAG are keen to get the village together and keep the community spirit alive.
A range of worship activities from traditional to modern take place on a weekly basis and service times and event information can be found on the church noticeboards.
The church is one of three places of worship which make up the Parish of Annesley with Newstead covering Annesley All Saints, Newstead Village and Newstead Abbey Chapels.
Newstead has benefited from the independent community run “Treefest” annual music, arts and crafts event over previous years. This has been a focus for the community as a summer event, as GBC funded events are difficult and costly to access for many Newstead residents.
Essentially Newstead has some excellent facilities for a community of its size. There is an opportunity to use these facilities for a much wider benefit for the community.
What you said-
"Have the community centre open more hours for people who work Monday to Friday."
"How about opening the café as a take away in the evenings, or as a homework club for kids with food."
"Access to Newstead Abbey for Newstead residents."
78% of respondents said they would like to see the Citizens Advice Bureau service continue in the future. 84% said they didn’t use the IT facilities at the community centre. 35% said they would like to see the church used more for community events.
What we would like to achieve
- Residents use of, and respect of, the facilities of Newstead Abbey as part of our Parish
- 5 a side floodlit ball court
- Permanent keep fit facility
- Residents can access facilities not in the village, such as swimming pools
- Community centre open for residents use
- Residents are able to shop locally for all provisions
Actions
- Set up liaison group to maintain regular trouble shooting relationship
- Re-establish historical access for the village residents to the Abbey grounds
- Set up a steering group to look at funding for ball court and keep fit facilities
- Provide residents with “passport to leisure” to Ashfield facilities
- For the Newstead Community Centre to respond to local requests to open the Café and IT suite to early evenings
and at weekends to ensure the whole community have access to facilities on offer
- To promote local sourced fresh food delivery such as Veg Box schemes
- To ensure the shop/Post office stays open
- To reinstate the Take-away/Chip shop
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