Armstrong Ceilings announces winner of New Beginnings competition
Story by
August 9, 2018
Some two months after launching its #eVoNewBeginnings competition to donate a new ceiling to a voluntary or charitable organisation, Armstrong Ceilings is helping residents of one West Yorkshire town to scratch a seven-year itch.
For the winner of its competition is The Space Field Lane – a £480,000 project to renovate a former community centre on the Field Lane estate in Rastrick that has lain empty for seven years.
The prize was up to 250m2 of Dune eVo tiles and grid plus up to three days of free installation by a member of Armstrong’s national network of approved Omega installers
The Space Field Lane project was entered by its architect Neil Hardacre of Pickles Architecture in Brighouse.
A group of community volunteers has been working together for several years to bring about a ‘new beginning’ to the former community centre at the heart of the Field Lane Estate in Rastrick in West Yorkshire.
It has been closed for seven years and the estate is desperately short of a facility where its community can come together. The project aims to bring about activities for all generations, opportunities for socialising at the planned community café, and training and vital opportunities for the young people of the estate.
Group trustees have taken the building over from the council and have design plans in place to complete major refurbishment, including two big spaces which need new ceilings, lighting and so on. They were two thirds of the way towards the total funding of £480,000 required but have already had to scale back to make the project feasible.
In their entry, trustee Mary Green, said: “We have achieved so much already and are just ordinary people determined to make this happen. We have brought the building into our own hands, held consultation days and events, raised over £300,000 in grants and worked with a local project team to pull together the refurbishment plans.
“Winning this competition would not only provide us with precious practical and financial help but would be such a morale boost. To have encouragement and support from a business such as Armstrong Ceiling Solutions would be absolutely invaluable.
“Our project truly is a ‘new beginning’ for local residents, the estate and wider community who have come together to support the building becoming ‘The Space at Field Lane – Our Space, Our Place’ – a vibrant community hub. We really hope that a Dune eVo Armstrong ceiling will become an invaluable part of it.”
On hearing that they had won the competition, and the new Dune eVo ceiling, an ecstatic Mary added: “We are absolutely delighted. This is terrific news and a real morale booster to us as a team apart from the practical help that the prize will give to our project.
