Bishop’s Stortford Town Council has come up with a top 10 community projects and awarded them grants totalling £313,000.
Members spent a day listening to pitches from 15 organisations and awarded marks for robustness, credibility, environmental sustainability, value for money and inclusivity to reach their decision.
The mayor, Cllr Dave Anderson, said: “It is a pleasure to be able to recycle the proceeds of development to worthy causes in the town. The assessment day was quite gruelling for councillors, but the outcome will be an improvement in many popular facilities used by the residents.
“The town council thanks all the organisations which applied for grants for their efforts, and compliments them on the quality of the applications.”
In all, £500,000 was up for grabs from the authority’s £6.5m windfall from redundant allotments land at Farnham Road. Education authority Herts County Council bought the plots as the site of the Avanti Meadows Primary School.
The big winners included Birchwood High School, which was awarded all £50,000 requested for new cycling facilities, including a mountain bike track, a pump track and an integrated multi-purpose path which can be used for cycling and running activities.
Grove Cottage also got £50,000 to demolish its London Road headquarters and provide a larger building to support town residents of all ages who have a learning disability.
Bishop’s Stortford Lawn Tennis Club‘s plans to provide padel all year at Cricketfield Lane also got full £50,000 support.
The United Reformed Church in Water Lane completed the quartet of maximum awards with £50,000 towards its modernisation plans costing almost £1.5m.
Bishop’s Stortford BID (Business Improvement District) was awarded all £39,282 requested to add twinkly tree lighting to the town centre and The Bishop’s Stortford High School won £30,000 of the £50,000 requested to build an artificial grass pitch for football and rugby at its new campus on St James Park.
The handouts were completed with a full £16,000 grant to Bishop’s Stortford Community Orchards Group to plant trees at Jenkins Lane; £13,341.25 of £19,041.25 requested for repairs and equipment at Thirst Youth Café for Bishop’s Stortford Youth Project; a full £1,361.36 grant to Bishop’s Stortford Angling Society to transform an old farm reservoir into a fishing lake; and £7,528.46 to re-equip Bishop’s Stortford Army Cadets.
The five unsuccessful bids came from:
- Bishop’s Stortford Community Sports Club, which wanted £50,000 towards a new pavilion at Cricketfield Lane;
- Bishop’s Stortford Museum & Arts Charitable Incorporated Organisation, which wanted £50,000 towards the £64,257 cost of improving its displays and storage facilities;
- Chantry Squash & Racketball Club, which pitched for the same sum to upgrade courts at Cricketfield Lane;
- Bishop’s Stortford Community Church, which asked for £50,000 towards the £53,625 bill for upgrading the heating system at the Charis Centre in Water Lane; and
- St Elizabeth’s Centre at Perry Green, which applied for £1,000 towards the £3,000 cost of a new sensory garden.
The town council also has major plans to invest in other capital projects, including South Mill Arts and Castle Park. Late last year, it awarded £250,000 to some of the town’s sports clubs.
Credit: Source link
