People’s Millions Bid Successful - 14/12/10

There have been celebrations at Canterbury College after a bid, supported by students, for money to revamp the foyer of the King’s Hall in Herne Bay was successful.

The Herne Bay Conservation Trust joined forces with the College to ask for almost £50,000 from The People’s Millions competition to carry out work at the seaside venue.

Camera crews from ITV Meridian filmed students at the College talking about how they would be involved in the project, and the bid film was broadcast on Tuesday (23rd November).

The bid went head to head with another project in Sussex with viewers voting King’s Hall as the winner.

College Construction students will be involved in the building work and will be able to gain two additional qualifications in scaffolding and Health and Safety.

Design students will also be involved to come up with ideas for the interior including wallpaper and fabric for the chairs.

The finished area will be used by Art students to showcase their work and by the Music Department to stage performances.

The King’s Hall, overlooking the sea on Beacon Hill, was originally named King Edward VII Memorial Hall when it was opened in July 1913.

The plan is to start the renovation work in the New Year and have it completed by August with the new venue launching during the Herne Bay festival.

The People’s Millions competition, in partnership with ITV, has been running for the past six years and has awarded nearly £22million to more than 380 projects.

Student Update by Jonas Marchant

Canterbury College and some of its students were brought to the attention of television viewers in the Meridian East region in November, as they supported a bid for funds from the 2010 People’s Millions.

Canterbury College students teamed up with the Herne Bay Trust to embark on a once in a lifetime opportunity to appear on the regional news programme, and earn some extra qualifications and work experience if the project they were supporting was given the cash grant.

Thanks to the encouraging words to potential voters from a selection of College students, who spoke on TV alongside the Herne Bay Trust and Herne Bay Junior School pupils, Herne Bay successfully won the £50,000 People’s Millions grant.

What is the project?

Herne Bay is known for its beautiful seafront, pier, ice-cream parlours, arcades, chip shops and for having an entertainment venue called the Kings Hall.

For those who don't know the Kings Hall, it is a bit past its ‘sell by’ date, especially in the main lobby and the Herne Bay Trust plan to use the cash to revamp this part of the venue.

At present, there is nowhere in Herne Bay for the young and old to promote and show off their art work or performing talents, so the £50,000 will help design and create a new modern fresh and vibrant arts and entertainment venue.

Canterbury College students input

Students involved in the project will be from a range of courses at the College, and each student will achieve work experience to add to their CV along with additional qualifications.

Construction students will be the front runners for the refurbishment and setting the wonderful project on its way, Art & Design students will create the interior of the building including the colours of paint that will be used to replace the current wallpaper and finally Media students will be recording the fabulous events that take place and capturing the pictures of the new refurbishment.

What does the £50,000 mean to Herne Bay?

I spoke to a few people to get their thoughts on how helpful the future change and development would mean to them personally:

Drama student: I personally love to perform at the Kings Hall and think it would be great to be able to do it more often in a more colourful place.

Media student: I want to be a journalist so to record the events of this project and perhaps make a documentary and newspaper article would be splendid and will help my career brilliantly. Once finished, I think it would be a brilliant place to see young talent perform.

Herne Bay Trust Member: It’s about time this happened and I feel ecstatic to be involved and helping the young and old from Herne Bay as well as the Canterbury College students who will benefit from this project.

As you can see, the People’s Millions is most certainly going to benefit Herne Bay and importantly a selection of Canterbury College students.

By Jonas Marchant