Opportunities for businesses, community groups and other good causes - Ken James

As councillors, quite a lot of our time is often spent manging what seems to be an ever reducing level of funding and making tough decisions on how we can best allocate the money available. So, for a change it’s nice to be able to bring you some more upbeat news about some extra funding opportunities and how you can apply for these through the council or our partners.

Councillors at Torridge don’t ordinarily have a lot of individual discretionary spending power as funding allocations are usually controlled collectively through committee processes and decisions. However, as ward members we have each been allocated £1,000 under the councillor grants scheme.

The grants are designed to be available to support charities, voluntary and community groups, and other small projects in our wards.

They are also available to not for profit organisations who are out there helping support local people and communities, or the local environment. Youth clubs, village halls, local fairs, heritage centres, preservation trusts, rehabilitation centres have all benefited from grants in the past. Sometimes these are just to purchase small items of equipment costing £100 or less but in other cases councillors have pooled their allowances to help make larger purchases such as pieces of play equipment for children’s groups.

The first step for someone seeking a grant is to contact their councillor to discuss their project or service. Some wards have two or more Councillors and in those cases the grant seeker should contact all of them. Likewise, if the project or service benefits people from more than one ward, then they should also contact the relevant councillors for those wards.

As councillors we receive a regular summary of the money being allocated and since the election of the new council in May, councillors have allocated just under £6,400 from a total pot of £36,000. Some of the most recent awards in the past few weeks have included the purchase of food supplies for a community pantry, and some table cloths for a preservation trust.

While some councillors may have already earmarked some of their allowance for certain projects, now is the time to explore with them whether a contribution for your own community project might be possible.

Other sources of funding for community groups and projects are regularly collated by the council’s communications team and can be found on the 'Grants and Funding' page of the council’s website.

If you sign up to the alerts feature on our website, through the subscription wheel that pops up when you first log on, the team regularly send out email bulletins as new opportunities are announced. The current list has around 75 opportunities for funding so another worthwhile action to add to your funding to do list.

This week will also see the launch of a programme of support through our economic delivery partners at North Devon Plus, aimed at the business community but also social enterprises. The money comes from central governments Rural England Prosperity Fund which is part of the shared prosperity fund supporting activities that specifically address the particular challenges faced by rural areas such as ours.

Grants available will range from £2k to £25k and will be for capital items such as equipment or software to help create jobs or introduce new technologies and processes with a focus on net zero. These particular grants will require some match

funding which I’ve read will be between 20-30% depending on the size of the grant. There will be specific areas of focus and windows for making applications in a phased rollout this year and next. To find out more you should visit the North Devon Plus website at https://northdevonplus.co.uk/ where the schemes were launched at the beginning of the month.

Hopefully you’ll find some funding from one of these sources and good luck with your applications!