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.
Six community-based projects have been awarded £33,242 in the latest, the Fourteenth round of awards since the Marshes Community Benefit Fund was established in 2016.
“In this, the 2023 second of the twice yearly MCBF’s awards, six worthy community-based projects have been awarded funding to develop their projects. These range from upgrading buildings and facilities to buying new equipment. The panel considered the Golden Grant Application alongside the usual Grant Applications for the first time. As always, all the projects had 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 all met the application criteria. The panel agreed to award £33,242 to six worthy recipients from within the MCBF geographical area. 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 early next year to consider all applications submitted by the 29th of February 2024 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: –
Frodsham Festival of Walks
Adopting an innovative approach, the Frodsham Festival of Walks promotes, for the benefit of the residents of Frodsham and surrounding areas, a variety of appropriate accompanying events that celebrate and promote Frodsham and the surrounding countryside parks, forests, and woodland spaces.
The group offers something for everyone and hopes to inspire residents and visitors to discover or rediscover incredible past stories of Frodsham town and countryside.
Showing an appreciation of the natural world, the group also supports walks highlighting plant and animal life and an awareness of environmental change.
The awarded sum of £5,000 will be used to increase awareness amongst the local population during the group’s 20th anniversary. They plan to attract new participants through additional walks, talks and celebrations, some of which will be led, presented, or attended by celebrity guests.
Spirit of the Herd Pony Sanctuary
Seeking £17,000 to install an eco-friendly compostable toilet and disabled unit at the sanctuary, which will provide better accessibility for the community who use our services. Once installed, the sanctuary can return the current rented portaloo, which is costly, inefficient, and not environmentally friendly.
The Spirit of the Herd sanctuary aims to rescue and rehabilitate ponies and horses, securing their future by training in equine-assisted therapy, re-homing, or retirement.
Working with children, young people and adults with learning needs, lacking confidence, or those who experience stress or anxiety, the sanctuary offers an inclusive approach supporting anyone aged two to years upwards.
One Voice Community Choir
As a fully inclusive adult choir with no auditions required to join, the One Voice Community Choir promotes the well-being benefits of communal singing and friendship. The choir, whose members mainly reside in Frodsham Helsby and surrounding villages, entertains free-of-charge audiences at local events and nearby charitable organisations.
The awarded £710.00 will be used towards a three-part project planned to improve the choir’s accessibility to the community. This includes a rent subsidy for the next year for a subset of the choir, the ‘One Voice Care Home Chorus’. This self-leading choir learn various 50s and 60s popular tunes, which are then performed at the local residential care homes in Frodsham Helsby. They will also purchase floor cable protectors for the cables linking speakers and microphones to power sources, protecting choir members and audiences from potential trip hazards. The choir’s website will also be upgraded, which would increase the website’s storage space and enable online payments for subscriptions and concert performance tickets.
Frodsham Volleyball Club
Frodsham Volleyball Club provides social volleyball coaching and matches for all ages and abilities, providing twice weekly coaching sessions for juniors and adults mixed under 11 squads competing locally, under 18 and under 16/15 girls and boys competing regionally and nationally, men’s and women’s teams and providing development for emerging athletes. The awarded £5,563.00 will be used to ensure the club continues to grow and be successful.
Aiming to compete at the top tier of junior competitions part of the funding will go towards improving competition facilities at the Frodsham Leisure Centre, allowing the club to acquire a second match court to enable them to play two matches at the same time, due to the increased number of teams that are now playing in national, regional, and local competitions. Some of the funding is being used to hire the hall to keep the costs of participating low for families in this current economic climate. The rest of the award will be used to train new junior coaches and referees to support the club. Acquiring a new pool of coaches and referees will ensure the club’s continued success by supporting its competition development.
Weaver Sailing Club
An inclusive non-profit organisation providing water-based activities on the river Weaver and facilities for group membership such as schools and the Frodsham 3rd Sea Scouts as well as active walking areas and picnic grounds for the local community with public footpath so their adjoining land.
Weaver Sailing Club also provide Merseyside Fire and Rescue facilities and have close links to Cheshire Police & the Rural Crime Unit and North West Police Underwater Search & Marine units.
The requested £3,969.00 will be used to replace a 15-year-old wooden bridge that is in poor condition. Replacing the bridge will allow local people and those not so local to cross over the brook to walk in the wild meadow field that was established and developed from funding received from a local Frodsham community activity Grant. Over the years, the bridge has successfully allowed members of the public to walk the club’s land and enjoy the scenery, comprising a maintained pasture and wildlife such as buzzards, ducks geese and swans, wild birds, and rabbits.
STAR Bereavement Support
Offering peer support to the residence of Frodsham, Helsby and Elton who are experiencing bereavement and loss. Star Bereavement Support submitted a video and through the MCBF Golden Grant procedure, their application was successful.
Realising the benefits of receiving bereavement support from those who have similar experiences and the awarded a £1,000 will be used to enable bereaved residence to receive support through their much needed community project.
A Word from the Chair
I am delighted that the panel have been able to award over £33K in this funding cycle, which takes the total awarded in 2023 to over £160,000. Once again, the diverse nature of the successful applications will ensure that the awards provide a positive impact on a wide variety of the people in the local region.
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. As always, I would like to thank all of the panel members who continue 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