Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
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gil
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what would your local community do with....£7500 pa for 25 years
(or £22500 every third year)
We (the rural parish of...) will be getting the chance to spend up to £7500 pa etc as above on projects (revenue or capital) to benefit the local community. We have a parish hall and a primary school, but are otherwise a remote, scattered community of working farms, with a population of about 100-150, of mixed ages. Very few incomers.
What to spend it on ? ideas very welcome.
BTW, this is windfarm compensation money.
We will also be getting some separate arts/sport funding from the council to address our severe rural deprivation...
And what would be good / useful in your local area ?
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Fee
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hmmm...I'm not sure.
I think in this area, it would go on something for the teenagers to do rather than hang around the shops. Though I don't think getting them something to do would actually stop that to be fair 
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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what a useful amount! What's the age mix in your community i.e proportion of young to elderly say?
Dunno, a community website or free newspaper to try and bring the folks together?
A nearby town to us has a community bus, run by volunteers that does a regular bus from town centre to doctors surgery/chemist, plus day trips and dial-a-ride type services. Would that be of use?
Can you use it to subsidize something else already exisiting?
How exciting to try and find something to spend money on!
How would we spend it? Our community is much less scattered than yours and there is a mix of very wealthy ( inc a day time TV presenter ) and the council house end. Actually I think we'd use it to see if a community shop would be viable. Its something that as a village we've talked/day dreamed about but the actual reality i.e suitable premises, business plan, expertise is lacking so money to invest in that would be brilliant and it would give a more realistic view on whether it really was something that would work or not.
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jema
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Tricky sum of money really  In many ways it is incredibly small, e.g not enough to easily fund say a minibus.
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judith
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Our parish was given some windfarm bung money too. It was to be shared between the two main villages in the area - one larger, one smaller. So far, the larger village has received a nice new adventure playground and ours, the smaller one, has received sweet FA.
Whatever you go for, make sure it is shared out evenly!
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RoryD
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Its a nice useful figure for match funding purposes. Nice new playground equipment would be my (sons) choice 
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Nick
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We're in the situation where we're trying to build a village hall. We have to raise £20k, which is nothing, and the rest will be given to us from funding bodies. You've got the first chunk. You'll be able to make it grow, as someone else said, with Matched funding. Look into it, but you may be able to get ten times as much for a decent project.
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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our local pre-school got a Defra grant for a new building.
We have a charitable trust in the village. They raise money through various fundraising events. The idea is that they then give out grants to organisations or individuals for educational purposes. Could it be administered in that sort of way?, in that there is a central pot of money and individuals or groups apply each year for money ( ours states you can't apply for more than half of the total money raised in a year) and it gets given out on an annual basis. So a kid needing college funds help is equally likely to get help as the local school.
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Mary-Jane
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Something for the youngsters - art/creative club for pre-teens and a youth club for teenagers. If the youngsters get interested in activities everything else follows from that.
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sean
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Bicker for ages then end up dividing into various groups who didn't speak to each other.
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Mary-Jane
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| sean wrote: | | Bicker for ages then end up dividing into various groups who didn't speak to each other. |
Absolutely... 
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gil
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Thanks for ideas and comments.
The money can be matched with other funding, which gives us more possibilities.
Age mix is predominantly older (40s upwards), but with enough children (combined with the adjacent parish) to keep a small 1-teacher primary open.
There are 6 council houses, in a row. Of the rest, half the parish is tenanted (landed estate), the other half owner-occupied. People from the council houses don't mix with anyone else, despite invitations to join in events, groups etc.
We have a bus service to the nearest town (three times a day round trip, for two of which it doubles as the secondary school bus) : almost unused by adults, almost all of whom drive or have family for lifts.
People who live here do not consider themselves deprived.
Other than farming, it is hard to tell what folk are interested in. They are mostly too busy to do anything but work and do the usual rural things like mend machinery and motors, shoot, grow veg and fruit, and process it.
A kids playground would be good. And probably popular.
A minibus + driver to ferry people to and from the town pubs ! Though almost noone goes out much these days, seemingly.
Lessons in ceilidh dancing for the growing number who don't know how to.
Dreams of a parish shop and pub, as mentioned before in this forum : the house that used to be the inn (50 years ago) is up for sale. No point looking at the price, as it'd be far too expensive. And even if we got a shop/pub, noone local would use it. There isn't a village as such, so no real centre of population or concentration of housing.
At the Hall Committee (Community Council) meeting yesterday evening, we decided to go round every house in person, to ask people what they would like the money to be spent on (to gauge opinion).
It is difficult to think of something constructive, necessary, useful/usable, and at the same time not boring and worthy.
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gingerwelly
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Do you have local show? If not it could always go towards one, pay for prizes .hire a tent,
or a festival ..with music and food.
or a nature garden for the primary school, which could have a pond etc ,which could be open to the public ...and build a kitchen garden for the school.
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gil
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| gingerwelly wrote: | Do you have local show? If not it could always go towards one, pay for prizes .hire a tent,
or a festival ..with music and food. |
We do have a local show (shared with the adjoining parish that shares the primary, and held in their parish hall).
I've been thinking about a festival for several years now. Probably counts as Arts (see the other 'rural deprivation' funding), and just got myself onto the Council sub-Committee dealing with that pot of money as a rural parish representative, so will see how it goes and what is in mind.
| gingerwelly wrote: | | or a nature garden for the primary school, which could have a pond etc ,which could be open to the public ...and build a kitchen garden for the school. |
School grounds are 'open to the public' anyway (school is at a fairly deserted junction, surrounded by a low wall), and there is a pond just up from the school where the kids do nature study stuff, but a kitchen garden would be a good idea - might inspire them to want to grow (more) food at home.
Anything to do with the school will find community support. It's an easy win. I'd also like to do something for the rest of us...
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Cathryn
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Our villager wanted a bus shelter - tiny villagge - full of children all catching the school bus in the mornings - standing exposed whatever the weathers - council wouldn't let us though - I must admit it would be a tricky spot to put it but shame really.
My first thought was Seans as well - and a certain sense of relief that it hadn't happened to us - but I hope I am doing it an injustice - and we would all pull together.
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jamsam
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gil, if you want some festival advice prop me a line and i will give you all ive got,
how about something like a community transport, train some volunteers and buy a mini bus..im suer some of the farms could do with the odd lift/visitor.
what a bout a food coop or a community composting scheme, all these need a decent amount of money to get of the ground but the actual running costs could be low.
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