London Eye Community Chest Grants Scheme a finalist in Building London Planning Awards

SBEG is delighted to announce that the London Eye Community Chest Fund is a finalist in the 21st Annual Building London Planning Awards.

The innovative scheme, which saw funds from the S106 agreement with the London Eye become available for community groups in the local area, is nominated in the 'Placemaking, Heritage & Culture Award'.

The fund was launched collaboratively by South Bank and Waterloo Neighbours and Merlin Entertainments (the operator of the Eye) in the Autumn of 2024.

Local community groups with projects focusing on building community and strengthening community resilience were to make applications for project grants between £1,000 and £10,000. 12 local groups, out of 34 submissions, received grant support, totalling up to £60,000. Recipient products included, among others, work such as support to rough sleepers and local homeless, the use of soccer programmes to engage at-risk youth, familiarisation walks for local refugees, weekly social activities for socially isolated, an oral history project for a local estate and improvement by volunteers of neglected areas of a local park.

The submission to the awards was made and delivered by Hatch, as commissioned by South Bank Employers' Group. SBEG, along with SoWN, initially engaged Hatch in April 2024 to develop an evidence base and strategic recommendations to guide redesign of the grant programme, in a post Covid-19 landscape.

The Building London Planning Awards are delivered by BusinessLDN, in partnership with the Mayor of London. For further information on the award and other finalists, please see here.