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Active Luton opens Marsh Farm Community Enterprise and Resource Centre
Marsh Farm Community Development Trust (MFCDT) was one of 39 New Deal for Communities (NDC) programmes in the UK established by the Government to improve the quality of life and provide more opportunities for those living in the most deprived areas in the country.
Marsh Farm is an estate located in the northern corner of Luton with approximately 9,000 residents.
A key project of the Trust was the development of the former Coulter factory - now a Community Enterprise and Resource Centre (CERC). This site forms part of the Marsh Farm Community Development Trust Master Plan and is identified as the location of a "Community Hub" to serve Marsh Farm.
An indoor commercial Play Park was created as a key facility within the £8.2m new CERC building at Marsh Farm, Luton. A 5,750sq m integrated facility was built which includes a community hall, café, Indoor Play Area, retail, health facilities, council services, police and commercial businesses within an enterprise centre.
Funded by MFCDT , the facility is managed by Active Luton. An Indoor Play Area had long been a key requirement of the local community as there are few amenities within Marsh Farm and no other similar facility within Luton. It is intended to be run as a commercial facility designed to respond to the local demand as well as attract a wider market, and so achieve a number of commercial and social objectives.
"With the development of the Indoor Play Area being such a key element of the project it was clear that we needed to appoint a supplier that could mentor Active Luton through the whole process and provide on-going support and advice," said Helen Barnett of Active Luton. "With these criteria in mind we found that only one supplier was capable of delivering our project and that was House of Play Limited, based in Doncaster.
"House of Play was there for us throughout the project offering help and support at every milestone of the project from providing us with a unique design to meet the criteria of both Active Luton and the Marsh Farm Community to providing on-going support to assist us with operation matters that have arisen since our opening."