Lilley and Stone Campaign group formed and fundraising to protect Newark site from housing developers

A campaign group has big plans to safeguard the Lilley & Stone.

Concerned residents turned campaigners when they began meeting to discuss the proposed plans to redevelop the school site. These plans would see housing built on land currently used, in part, by community groups and sports clubs.

Now those campaigners have officially formed the Lilley & Stone Site in Peril Community Organisation (LASSIPCO) and have started taking donations in order to expand and fund their campaign.

Most recently the group created a website and social media pages in order to help spread their message further and more easily communicate with the youth of the area, who are the legacy of the trust that owns the site.

LASSIPCO organiser, Rowan Cozens said: “Our key principle is that we feel very strongly that this is an asset that belongs to the young people of Newark.

“It shouldn’t be sold off to developers for profit and we’d like to keep it as a community asset.

“So we’ve started fundraising, we’ve started a proper community organisation and we’re speaking with other groups in Newark, including Newark Sports Association and Newark Civic Trust.

“We’ve got enough talent in this community to be able to do something really good with that site.

“We have town planners, architects, fundraisers. We have local people with the ability to come up with a really exciting project.

“We do not want developers coming in and rushing through a housing development. Nobody we’ve spoken to wants more houses in the middle of Newark.

“There are a lot of community groups interested in using the Lilley & Stone site. Some of the millions of pounds from the Towns Fund should be used to make good those buildings.”

A petition set up by the group to gauge public opinion has already gained roughly 600 signatures, demonstrating the strength of feeling from the community.

As part of fundraising efforts and boosting youth engagement the group also plans to hold a number of events. The first of which will be House and Garage night taking place at The Duck on Castlegate, Newark, this Saturday (January 28) with tickets available for just £2.

22-year-old club promoter and event organiser, Jonah said: “I’ve lived in Newark all my life and started promoting events last year, so when I heard about the work of LASSIPCO I wanted to get involved.

“It will be similar to a club night with a DJ and an MC, it’s just a come down and have a good time kind of event and build a little community around what we do.

“I was quite surprised by the number of tickets we’d sold because even in Nottingham you don’t tend to sell that many until a day or two before an event.

“There has been a lot of engagement and interest because there’s not much happening like this in Newark, it’s a bit quiet.

“We want to make sure that people have a good night, enjoy themselves and raise a bit of money too.”

LASSIPCO will also be present at the Protect Newark's Green Spaces environmental rally this Sunday (January 29).

Rowan explained how the money raised from such events would be spent, saying: “Ideally what we’d like to do is raise a lot of money and make it quite high profile so that we can do something with the site.

“We have a treasurer, we have a bank account and we will be completely transparent about how much we make.

“We are very aware that the site is in a dilapidated state, but our first concern is raising the profile and then investing in the listed buildings to make them safe, so that they can be used.”

“And we want the youngsters to be involved because they have the most amazing, visionary solutions and those old farts who make the decisions don’t have a clue about what Newark has to offer.

“This is a great town and the youngsters deserve better.”