Marshes Community Benefit Fund – 8 Projects Awarded Grants of £129,175
The Marshes Community Benefit Fund (MCBF) Panel reveals which projects have been awarded funding from the latest round of awards from the annual £120,000 community payments made by Frodsham Wind Farm Limited.
Eight community-based projects have been awarded £129,175 in the latest, the thirteenth round of awards since the Marshes Community Benefit Fund was established in 2016.
In this, the first of the twice yearly MCBF’s awards saw nine community-based projects awarded funding to develop their projects which range from upgrading buildings and facilities, buying new equipment to purchasing uniforms, advertising events and, all with the ethos of improving community access and being more inclusive.
The Panel members analysed each of the applications. They performed due diligence to ensure that they agreed to award £129,175 to eight worthy recipients from Helsby, Frodsham, Elton, Runcorn and Kingsley. All the successful applications met the award criteria and offered ventures that would benefit the local community.
Are you part of a not-for-profit school, charity, business, community group or club considering a project which will benefit the local community? Have you considered that your project might meet the criteria for funding from the MCBF? If so, we would love to hear from you. Please consider applying, even if you have applied in the past and have not been successful. Guidelines for applications and details of the award process are available on the MCBF website.
The MCBF Panel meets again in the autumn of this year to consider all applications submitted by the 31st of August 2023 deadline.
Joycey Bammeke-Bailey, MCBF Panel Member, PR
The following is a summary of this round’s successful applicants and how the funding they receive will be used: –
Runcorn Rowing Club – awarded a sum of £25,000 for a brand-new purpose-built two-storey boathouse. The ground floor will have storage for rowing boats, canoes and launches. The first floor will provide a gym and social area/café, changing rooms, storage/meeting room, adaptive toilets/shower and a lift. As well as additional parking which will include an electric charging point and cycle stands, there will be a viewing balcony overlooking the river.
There are plans to provide indoor rowing classes and to franchise the café for community use along with renting the meeting room and social area.
The project also proposes to provide sustainable utilities through solar panels and harvesting rainwater.
Elton Community Centre – with an expected rise in footfall the requested £36,935 will be spent replacing the 1970s toilets with an improved up-to-date more environmentally friendly system with baby changing, disabled units, and child-friendly facilities making the community centre more inclusive. This project will all the first part of the drive to improve the green credentials of the building by reducing the amount of water that is used, adding economical hand dryers and relieving the pressure on the boiler by changing the heaters.
Helsby Concert Band – is a community concert band with thirty members aged from ten years to over eighty, with the standard of the instrument playing ability varying from beginner to over forty years of experience. The £2,300 will go towards purchasing uniforms for band members, consisting of a tie jacket and overcoat. They will also purchase business cards leaflets and banners to advertise their last night of the Proms concert which will be held on the thirteen of May.
3rd Frodsham Sea Scouts – is a community group comprised of young people aged six to fourteen years as well as young leaders and/or those on the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, who have been awarded £13,197 to purchase Kayaks and accessories that will enable them to continue to fulfil their obligation in relation to how much time is spent undertaking activities on the water. This equipment once purchased will provide more variety and enable them to increase the activities they offer allowing them to be more inclusive to young people who may have physical, learning or behavioural disabilities. they are also hoping that the new equipment will also allow them to venture further afield.
Frodsham Youth Association – wanting to expand their youth services so that they can create more space for young members to develop their skills, the Frodsham youth Association has been awarded £22,356 towards their project, which will involve merging two unutilised rooms together. By opening up this underutilised space I will be able to facilitate more young people and create a social area and café where they will be better able to supervise all activities within this zone.
Friends of St Luke’s – the £4,601 has been awarded to update the school’s outside play and learning space. A new outside wooden cabin will be installed that will be furnished with bookcases, shelving, beanbags and a large rug. The shelves are to be filled with a variety of diverse reading material, which will provide a welcoming reading space for the schools four- to eleven-year-olds.
Ho Ho Helsby – has for the past seven years been delivering an annual Christmas event that has grown from strength to strength each year, the £1,000 they have been granted will go towards the costs of providing equipment and activities for their planned village event that will take place on Bank Holiday Monday, 8th May 2023, to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III. It is hoped that what is a once-in-a-lifetime event for some, will bring together Helsby residents and the surrounding villages for a fun feel-good day.
Kingsley CP School – have been awarded £21,224, which they will use to remove an old unsafe track from their main field which they will replace with a new pathway, Also they will remove the fencing that currently surrounds the current fencing that around the tennis courts/hard play area and will be installing a new safe, multi-purpose fencing.
A Word from the Chair
I am delighted that the panel have been able to award £129,175 in this funding cycle. The diverse nature of the successful applicants will ensure that the funds provided will have a positive impact on a huge cross section of the local community.
I would like to encourage as many community groups as possible to apply for funding in the future. The panel want to provide funds to as many worthy causes as possible and we welcome all applications. To support this, we will once again be launching a “Golden Grant” process for any applicants who are seeking funding of £1,000 or less. Please visit our website for further details.
I would like to thank all of the panel members for continuing to volunteer their time to support the benefit fund and I look forward to working with them to review the next round of applications.
Andrew Jones, MCBF Panel Chair