In the last 6 months a district Councillor Grant Scheme was brought in where each District Councillor received up to £3,000 to spend on local good causes.
This was advertised in my newsletters and this website, and has to be honest a challenge (surprisingly) to get people to come forward with applications! Hopefully the next years funding will generate more interest and more applications.
Next year I would like to see if we can organise a group to prepare and look after say 50 hanging baskets in Horndean village. If this interests you then please get in touch. I would also like to try to spend more of it in Downs Ward itself, and if there is support for a community BBQ on Downs Park one weekend then this might be a good way to meet more people in the community. If you like (or do not like) these ideas, or have suggestions for other great causes then please let me know.
In the meantime here are the good causes I supported and I have invited my colleagues to provide an article I can post here to let you know the local organisations they supported too.
£930 for 2 benches, a picnic table and 10 ornamental trees to be placed and planted in Downs Park. These will be purchased and installed by Horndean Parish Council. If you live nearby and are happy to help water the trees when they are planted to make sure they establish quickly then please let me know, the rangers will be very grateful for the support.
£1,000 for New Blendworth Centre for new paving materials to the plant sales area. New Blendworth Centre provides day care and structured activities for Adults with learning difficulties and is a little known charity in our community. They also have a plant sales area and prepare hanging baskets etc. I will be posting an article about them shortly and hope you might support them with some purchases?
£500 for Merchistoun Hall towards the Bandstand Project. This is a great community project I am proud to be involved with, and will also give local students studying at Highbury College a chance to learn some valuable skills on a real life project.
£480 for the HPC SID team to fund a service, re-calibration and new battery for the SID unit they deploy in the parish. The data used by the SID team is sued to help plan speeding enforcement and also being fed into HCC to support cases for road safety improvements.
