People living in the Merseyside town of Bootle were asked to come up with ideas to help their community ‘build back better’ from the pandemic – the response was fantastic. Tony McDonough reports

Eight ideas to help Merseyside town Bootle ‘build back better’ from the COVID-19 pandemic have secured funding to turn them into reality.

Launched in August, the Bootle Festival of Ideas was organised by community business Make CIC and backed by Sefton Council. It asked residents for their ideas to kick-start the recovery of their communities and win a share of a £6,000 development fund.

Over the course of six events, 161 people attended the Bootle Festival of Ideas,74 of them online and 87 in-person. Through the festival, 98 ideas were submitted. From this, eight promising ideas have emerged and are set to receive a starter-grant.

The eight ideas are: Adventure Boxes, Meda Brewing, Mosaic Motivation, Made In Bootle, Bee’s Bench, Bootle Zine Library, A helping Hand, and A Carnival Community. Each finalist was supported by mentors to produce a poster which gives an elevator pitch of what the idea is, and what else they might need to make it happen.

Now each idea will receive a portion of the starter-grant pot, as well as on-going support from Make CIC, Kindred and Sefton Council to develop their ideas further and bring them into reality.

Make CIC chief executive, and LCR Town Centre and Land Commissioner for the Metro Mayor, Liam Kelly said: “It’s brilliant to see eight ideas emerge from the festival. 2020 has been an incredibly difficult year to run a programme like this, but despite the pandemic we managed to gather nearly 100 ideas and engage 161 people.

“Supporting and funding local people to bring forward ideas on how to make change happen is something we looked at on the LCR Town Centre Commission. Towns do need big capital investment, but they also desperately need investment in people.

“People who live, work and play in town centres have the solutions, they just need the means and support.”

One of the winning ideas, Bees Bench, was proposed by Bernadette Colligan. She said: “The festival gave us space to discuss ideas, collaborate and network with one another and imagine how our ideas could make a difference in Bootle.

“It showed the importance of having community at the heart of every idea and I am so excited to chat to everyone about making Bootle a more accessible and age friendly place through my bench project.”

The festival encompassed an eight-week programme, designed to inspire local people to share ideas related to five themes – making and selling, food and growing, music and culture, health and wellbeing and spaces for change.

Cllr Marion Atkinson, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Skills, added: “The Festival of Ideas was a unique opportunity, amidst the chaos of the last few months.

“It offered residents an opportunity to bring about positive changes to their own lives, to their communities and our culture.  I’m delighted so many wonderful ideas have been brought forward, further enhancing Sefton’s reputation as a borough of ideas and innovation.”