The Town Council is pleased to report that as part of its plans to relocate offices it has worked with Rev Rob Wykes at the St Paul’s Centre to find a means of recognising all the help and support provided to it in its first three years of operation. Subject to Council approval the Council plans to create a ‘St Paul’s Bursary’ and allocate a budget of £5kpa.
Finance and Resources Committee agreed at its meeting on the 29th September that the first recipient of the Bursary should be the St Paul’s Centre itself.
The expectation is that the award will be used to employ a young person from Crewe and help them make the transition from education to employment by acquiring new skills and experience that assist them move onto a successful career. The work experience will be in the St Paul’s cycle work shop which repairs and recycles unwanted bikes back into use.
Rob Wykes (Director, Christian Concern, St Paul’s Centre) said ‘Crewe has such a wonderful engineering and cycling heritage that the setting up of a bursary which will celebrate our heritage through future generations is fabulous. As one song writer put it ‘…our children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way…’ Well done Crewe Town Council for investing where it will best serve the Town”
Cllr Simon Yates, Leader of the Town Council said ‘I’m thrilled about this for so many reasons, firstly it allows us to thank the centre for all they have done to make us so welcome, it is sad we are leaving but the Town Council is growing and needed to find a home of its own. Secondly, I’m proud that we can support such a worthwhile cause as the cycle initiative, every penny that we contribute will, we know, lever in more value through the use the bikes get in the future. Finally, we want to support young people in Crewe and help them develop skills and find quality employment in the town. This is fully in line with the Crewe Pledge and I’d invite others to consider following the lead of the Town Council.
‘The Town Council wanted to see a legacy from our tenure in St Paul’s, that is why we plan to call this new bursary the St Paul’s Bursary, that will serve as a reminder of our connection and association with the centre, but I also hope it will help us make new connections with others in the town doing similar good works. As such the plan in future years is to seek approaches from the Crewe based voluntary/charity sector to make applications so that via an award process by the Council they can also help a young person from Crewe progress into what I would hope will be a fantastic career’.
