Telford 50 Legacy Fund community building and facilities grant scheme opens for bids
Community groups from across the borough can now bid for their share of a £240,000 grant pot to help regenerate or buy community buildings and facilities.
The grants, of up to £20,000, are from the Council’s Telford 50 Legacy Fund to mark the town’s 50th anniversary.
The £2 million Telford 50 Legacy Fund supports a mix of physical schemes as well as projects that help tackle important social issues and reduce demand on council services.
This smaller grants scheme is open to community groups, charities, social enterprises, town and parish councils, school or faith groups and the projects must be based in the borough and benefit borough residents. Any group wanting to apply must provide 20% cash match funding.
Information on how to put forward ideas for funding and Expressions of interest guidance are available at www.telford50.co.uk/smallgrant and these must be made to the Council by 9 April.
Applicants will be told in May whether they are successful and projects must be delivered by the end of March 2019.
This smaller grants fund is in addition to £750,000 the Telford 50 Legacy Fund has made available for five town council areas, Dawley, Madeley, Oakengates, Newport and Wellington, with each able to access £150,000 to refurbish or buy community buildings or facilities in their council’s area.
If organisations have ideas for projects within these Town Council areas they should contact the relevant Town Council directly.
Refurbishment, purchase or adaptation of community buildings and facilities was a key theme that people said they most wanted any legacy funding to support.
With match funding, the total value of this part of the Telford 50 Legacy Fund, combining the smaller grants fund and those to town councils, would total at least £1.225 million.
Council leader Shaun Davies said: “This smaller grant scheme is open to any qualifying organisation in the borough to apply for – there’s a huge range of groups who can apply for this and I am sure many people will be very interested in how they can apply for this.
“One of the things that people told us was most important for them was investing in communities by refurbishing or helping people to take on new community buildings was mentioned by many people.
“We look forward to see lots of expressions of interest coming in and we will look to notify people of decisions in early May."
Almost 1,400 people took part in a consultation in summer 2017 to find out what people wanted to see supported as a legacy of Telford 50.
Some of the most popular themes included heritage and tourism, arts and culture and recreation. People were also keen to see the funding allocated to support community events and projects.
More details about other schemes that will receive Telford 50 Legacy funding will be published soon.
