Vital community hub gets £165k lifeline

A promised £165,161 lifeline to save a vital community hub will come from a new £2million investment fund that Erewash council is planning to devote to boosting the borough.

The highly regarded centre – which relies on volunteers – feared for its future amid spiralling costs that a council report revealed were at “a level the organisation is not able to meet”. 

In May 2025, Erewash Borough Council pledged to step in to safeguard the Cotmanhay Community Network – based at the former Bennerley School. The hub has a flagship mission to help domestic abuse victims as well as being a welcoming space for children, families and pensioners.

The centre was described in the report as being “well used” by some 800 people a month, including dance and sports clubs. A youth club there has helped to reduce anti-social behaviour. 

Older residents make use of a lunch club every Wednesday – and there is a warm spaces scheme in winter. A “Freedom Programme” at the centre is for women and girls in the community who are victims of domestic abuse.

The report to council leader James Dawson and his senior team described this as “desperately needed” in an area where rates of domestic abuse are among the highest in Derbyshire.

The £165,161 grant over the next three years will come from a new Erewash Investment Fund that the Council Executive is poised to give the go-ahead to when it meets on Tuesday 22nd July at Ilkeston Town Hall (4pm).

A total of £2million will be ploughed into enhancing community wellbeing and building a stronger, safer and more vibrant future for residents across the borough – before the authority is due to vanish in 2028 as part of local government reorganisation.

The funding for the centre is among a string of initial initiatives to benefit from the fund – with more expected to be announced later in the year.

Cllr Becca Everett – Erewash’s Deputy Leader and the council’s Lead Member for Community Engagement – said: “It was clear we needed to take swift action to safeguard the invaluable work of one of the borough’s most important community organisations.

“Without this funding the future of the much-loved Cotmanhay Community Network would have been bleak. The grant is just the kind of thing that our new Erewash Investment Fund is designed for – to make a grassroots difference to local people.”

Among those who fought to keep the centre open were Erewash borough councillors Josy Hare, Linda Burns and Robert Flatley. The hub thanked them for all their efforts – and urged people to keep checking the Cotmanhay Community Network Facebook page for updates on new projects.