Archived press release

Date Published: 12/07/07

The latest Community Chest grants are set to be awarded to successful local groups throughout Aylesbury Vale. The new grant fund – administered jointly by Aylesbury Vale District Council and the Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust (VAHT) &ndash...

The latest Community Chest grants are set to be awarded to successful local groups throughout Aylesbury Vale.

The new grant fund – administered jointly by Aylesbury Vale District Council and the Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust (VAHT) – aims to help voluntary and community organisations working in the district. Over the next ten years the fund will award around £5 million in grants to support community projects for local people.

In the latest round of awards, 12 community projects will benefit from over £95,000 in grants to support a wide variety of activities.

Five organisations will be given funding totalling £89,601 in the first round of ‘project grant’ awards. These are one-off grants of up to £25,000 which are available for both new and existing schemes that can demonstrate they are successful in meeting local needs. The project grants are decided by a panel made up of representatives from AVDC and VAHT.

A cheque of £25,000 will be handed to the Healthy Living Centre in Walton Court, Aylesbury, towards the cost of running the scheme. The centre provides a range of support services for local people, including work skills training, drop-in advice clinics and crèche facilities.

The Winslow & District Community Bus project will benefit from a grant of £25,000 to help pay for a new dual-fuel bus. The current community bus, which provides regular transport to Aylesbury, Winslow and Buckingham for 75 affiliated groups, has travelled more than 100,000 miles and needs replacing. The group has already raised £31,000 towards this project.

A cheque of £16,000 will be given to the Skidz motor project in Aylesbury to provide an additional tutor to help young people develop skills in motor engineering. Places on the workshops and weekly courses will be accessible to five additional local secondary schools when a new tutor is appointed.

The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in Buckingham and Winslow will receive a grant of £15,000 towards their home-visiting service for local residents who are unable to access a CAB office, and a cash boost of £8,000 will be awarded to Aylesbury Sailing Club to help pay for materials for an extension to the clubhouse which will provide disabled toilet and shower facilities. The club members are providing all the labour required for the building work.

In addition, seven community projects have received funding totalling £6,298 in the second round of ‘micro grant’ awards. The first micro grants were awarded in May and five local groups benefited from more than £4,500 in funding.

Micro grants are easily accessible grants of up to £1,000 which are awarded to projects and groups for a range of different uses, such as running costs or organising a community event. The latest round of funding has been given to the following groups:

• Steeple Claydon Village Fayre organising committee has been given £1,000 towards the cost of providing equipment, including a bungee run, inflatable slide and go-karts, for the forthcoming fayre on 14 July
• Aylesbury Vale Race Equality Council has received £1,000 for IT improvements to enable more efficient working by staff and volunteers
• Bucks Army Cadet League, based in Aylesbury, was awarded £1,000 to pay for new canoes which will be used by cadets during physical training exercises
• Aylesbury SPACE has been given a grant of £987 to provide head and shoulder massage therapy and trained listeners to support people going through relationship difficulties
• Aylesbury Astronomical Society has been given £900 towards materials for improving access to their observatory
• Aylesbury Sailing Club was awarded £735 to help pay for a new junior dinghy to provide safer and more effective training sessions for young people, and enable the club to work with other youth organisations to provide junior sailing training
• Buckingham Society, Oxford University and Buckingham Town Council were awarded £675 to pay for monitoring rafts to help volunteers monitor the Mink population along the Buckingham section of the River Ouse

Micro grant applications are reviewed on a monthly basis and can be submitted at any time. To be eligible to apply, groups must be formally constituted, not-for-profit and provide community activities or services which are of benefit to local residents within Aylesbury Vale.

The third and final funding stream, long-term revenue grants, will provide funding of up to £25,000 per year. This involves a two-stage application process: the first step being a simple form to check whether the grants panel would be likely to favourably consider a full application from the organisation and the second stage giving more details about the service to be supported.

Councillor Janet Blake, Chairman of the Community Chest Panel, said: “We are delighted that we have been able to help so many projects which represent such a diverse cross section of our communities. It is important that all organisations across the district realise that they can apply for grants and I would encourage others to come forward and make applications to see if there is a way the Community Chest can help.”

Matthew Applegate, Chief Executive of VAHT, said: “I too am delighted that the first phase of project grants have been awarded to such a variety of organisations and causes, they truly reflect the diversity of projects our communities are involved in. It is particularly pleasing to be able to support organisations that are actively working to make our communities safer, fitter, greener, better skilled and informed – something we can all aspire to.”

For further details on the grants criteria or to request an application form, please call the Community Chest Grants Officer, Sarah Rothwell, on 01296 585634, or email communitychest@aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk