Bringing People Together to Take Action
History
Beginnings
What is Big Local anyway?
​‘Big Local’ was an initiative funded by National Lottery Community Fund and managed by Local Trust. The unique idea was to place funding directly into the hands of local people and entrust and upskill people to deliver outcomes for their communities. Each area would receive £1million to be distributed according to the agreed priorities of local people. Each area would create a ‘partnership board’ made up of local residents to make decisions on behalf of the residents.
Whitley Bay Big Local
In 2012 a part of Whitley Bay town centre was selected as one of 150 areas to deliver a Big Local programme. This was known as Whitley Bay Big Local. The area was chosen as it was an area of particularly high social disadvantage in an otherwise affluent area. Community tensions were high and Whitley Bay hadn’t received a fair share of funding support. The history of this is connected to the declination of Whitley Bay as a party town.
Up until the early 2010s, Whitley Bay had a reputation as a party town, with a popular bar/nightclub industry attracting people from all around the country at weekends and bank holidays. By the early 2010s, this declined severely and high levels of crime and anti-social behaviour replaced the party-goers. Bars started closing and the hotels started to fall into disrepair and eventually become boarded up. Guest houses pivoted away from tourism to offer accommodation to prison leavers and vulnerable people.
The Big Local programme came about at exactly the right time. It was created as a way to support areas that struggled to attract grant funding, but where local residents were ready to work together to make a difference. Our area in the town centre was chosen because it was a ‘pocket’ of disadvantage in a relatively affluent area.
Residents in the lead
At the start of our Big Local journey, a residents panel was set up. The panel started consulting with local people to work out what their priorities were.
Many hundreds of ideas were put forward, and the ‘partnership board’, a committee of local residents, selected the most realistic and impactful suggestions.
Two major initiatives emerged, the re-establishment of the Whitley Bay Carnival and developing a community hub for Whitley Bay. Two specific themes were also identified - improving the local environment and supporting the health and wellbeing of local people.
Over the next 10 years, the Whitley Bay Big Local Partnership Board set about trying to make a reality of the ideas put forward by local people.
Projects
Whitley Bay Carnival
One of the earliest priorities identified by the partnership board was to re-establish Whitley Bay Carnival. There is history of a carnival in Whitley Bay going back to Victorian times, right through to the 1960s and residents were keen to see it reinstated, to build people’s pride and create opportunities for local people to come together and take part.
In 2014, the Whitley Bay Carnival was reinstated for the first time in several decades. The aim was to build people’s pride in the town and to create opportunities for local people to come together and take part.
In the first year, several hundred school children, community groups and artists were involved and thousands came out to watch. It is now an annual event, with hundreds of participants and over 10,000 people coming to watch the spectacle. Now managed by an independent charity, Salto Arts, we are confident that the Carnival will continue to thrive for many years to come.
Carnival
A building for community
In 2015 Whitley Bay Big Local took on the first of three premises as a base for our community activities. After a short stay in the first shop, the charity moved on to a larger building in the centre of Whitley Bay, before eventually leasing the former Job Centre building, now the home of North Tyneside Big Local and a sustainable hub for the community.
Trustees purchased the building in 2021, thanks to a grant from Community Ownership Fund and a loan from Charity Bank. Grants were sought to refurbish the building into a fit for purpose community hub.
The hub has been retro-fitted with insulation and solar panels to reduce its impact on the world around us and offering activities to support the health and wellbeing of local people.
Legacy
Developing a Legacy Vehicle
Whitley Bay Big Local was one of the first in the country to decide that it wanted to continue to support the community after the end of the Big Local programme and therefore went ahead and created a registered charity called Whitley Bay Big Local in May 2017. The charity was also needed to take on a lease on a premises, allowing the charity to develop a hub for the community.
Renew North Tyneside
In 2025, Whitley Bay Big Local was awarded a contract to operate a repair and reuse hub in partnership with SUEZ UK. The hub is the first substantial project outside of Whitley Bay and meant that the charity would need to substantially amend its constitution.
North Tyneside Big Local
Trustees decided to amend the constitution in 2025 to broaden the organisation’s geography to all of North Tyneside and include operating a reuse hub as part of the model.
