Roxy Collective forms to purchase The Roxy building and launches a Crowd Funding campaign!

The Roxy Collective has been formed by a group of local people to purchase the Roxy building and maintain the businesses which are already there: The iconic Roxy Cinema, world renowned Laurel and Hardy Museum, the U-Gym Ulverston and 808010 Productions.

The most urgent first task is to purchase the freehold of the building. When the building is secured, work will start to restore it, opening up more spaces for the community and making it fully accessible for everybody.

Ulverston Town Council has granted the Roxy Collective the sum of £50,000 towards the project, which is just over a quarter of the asking price. The project has the full cooperation of the current owners. The Roxy Collective is now well placed to move forward but now urgently needs the support of the community and business to make it happen. Mayor of Ulverston Cllr Bob Brown said:

“Ulverston Town Council is delighted to support the Roxy Collective in their plans to purchase and restore this much loved and iconic building and secure it for the town. We were very pleased to be able to offer a £50,000 grant towards the total purchase price of the building, which has come from our Community Infrastructure levy pot of funding; this is a levy on developers who build locally and can be used for capital projects such as this. We wish the Roxy Collective committee every success as they bid for other grants and I hope that this appeal to the community through a crowd funding initiative is highly successful as well. It will really show other funders how important this building is to the community”

The Roxy Collective now urgently needs the community’s support with the , called , which the group has launched today 4 April 2022.

The initial crowd funding target is £20,000 with a stretch target of £30,000, but as Suzy Garnett, chair of the group says “The more we can generate through Crowd Funding, the more chance we have of purchasing the building quickly and moving on to phase two.

Support from the community will help to reassure other funders who expect to see community engagement and local funding. Formed by local residents, The Roxy Collective is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC). The group has set out a three-phase plan;

· to purchase the building.

· to renovate it.

· collaborate with the local people in developing its community initiatives

Suzanne Garnett, Chair of The Roxy Collective, reflects on the group’s project;

‘The Roxy is an important and much-loved part of Ulverston and has been for over 80 years. We feel privileged to be part of such a caring and creative community and look forward to working closely with the Roxy buildings existing fantastic tenants, and also celebrating and championing new art, new experiences, new collaborations, and new stories.’

Join Us!

The Roxy Collective are excited to share their plans, discuss the work that has already taken place, and have an open conversation with local people and businesses at a public drop-in session in at The Laurel and Hardy Museum on Thursday 21st April 6 pm to 9 pm.

For any further details or if you have an interest in becoming involved, please contact The Roxy Collective: The Roxy, Brogden Street, Ulverston, Cumbria, LA12 7AH e: drop-in | w: the-oxymora | t: 01229 486922

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/future-of-the-roxy