Community grants totalling more than £28,000 have been approved under South Kesteven District Council’s grant scheme, including support for a diversity festival, village hall improvements, community events, playing field CCTV and even allotment bee keeping.
Uffington Bee Co-operative, a community group set up in 2020 and run by volunteers at the village allotments, is to receive full funding of £1,592.60 for a project to develop and promote bee keeping.
The funding will purchase new hives, protective equipment and jars for honey sales as the group raises awareness of the importance of bees for the environment and produces and sells honey to improve health and wellbeing.
Stamford’s first Stamford Diversity Festival, planned for August by the Stamford Anti-Racism Group, has received a helping hand with a £5,000 grant towards costs – dependent on the festival being able to go ahead.
The event will be a celebration of world music, food and drink, arts and crafts and community interest stalls, with artists and vendors of different ethnicity and nationalities. The grant will help fund the bands, a sound and lighting technician, stage, marquee, stalls, waste management, portaloos and St John’s ambulance attendance.
The playing field in Long Bennington is to have CCTV surveillance cameras installed, helped by a successful community grant application made by the parish council for £4,404.
Cameras will cover the multi-use games facilities and sports pavilion. Additional funding from the parish council is improving the power supply to allow pavilion broadband installation and monitoring.
September’s Langtoft Fete is to receive £1,221.50 to cover hire of trestle tables, tables and chairs and the purchase of perpetual cups and trophies for its celebration of life and community.
Judging of flowers, vegetables, arts and crafts, cookery, photography will run alongside entertainment including family and individual games, amusements for children, nature and crafting area and food and drink. The event will run alongside Langtoft Music Festival.
Braceborough Village Hall can look forward to the re-landscaping of a currently unused front garden area to provide a seating and meeting area, thanks to a community grant of £4,163.68 towards costs.
Noting the closer relationships forged amongst locals during the pandemic lockdown and shielding restrictions, the improvements are set to improve cohesion and community relationships, reduce the sense of isolation and loneliness felt by some and improve mental well-being in the local community.
Community facility Wake House in Bourne is to have new LED lighting within the building and a stairlift installed to improve accessibility, helped by a £5,000 grant towards refurbishment costs.
Managing charity the Bourne Arts and Community Trust wishes to secure its future as an important community asset in the heart of the town, including offering facilities for small start-up businesses. Savings resulting from the use of LED lighting will support further improvements.
Harlaxton Parish Council is to receive £5,000 towards improving the village play area, which has seen a large increase in usage during the pandemic with parents and children meeting after school and at weekends.
The project includes purchase and installation of a basket swing, 4-way springer, grass matting and the relocation of the play area fence to allow space for more sports and play elements for children of late primary and early secondary school age.
In Barrowby, a charitable trust providing community facilities is to receive a community grant of £890 towards the cost of a new, purpose-built access ramp to the side of the village Memorial Hall.
The ramp will provide both safer and better access for visitors who are wheelchair users and for those with mobility issues and will replace the old ramp which does not meet the necessary standards of the Equality Act 2010.
St Wulfram’s Church has been awarded £5,000 to honour last year’s funding commitment to support the planned Wulfram100 project marking 1,300 years since the death of its patron. With the programme postponed due to the pandemic, the revised activities this year relied on remote delivery of the community involvement element and the final performance screened rather than with a live audience.
Organisations applying to SKDC’s Community Fund for projects over £2,000 can request up to 80% of the total costs, to a maximum of £5,000. The other 20% must be contributed from elsewhere, of which 10% can be from ‘in-kind’ volunteering or materials.
The council also offers a small grants scheme for up to 100% of project costs to a maximum grant of £2,000.
The next closing date for funding applications is 23 July 2021.
For further information please contact communityfund@southkesteven.gov.uk
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