Published: Monday, 1st November 2021
Borough councillors have been receiving training to help them deliver a new community grant scheme available from 1 November.
Cllr Stuart Dark MBE, Leader of the borough council, explains: “Whilst we have a range of existing schemes to support larger capital projects and initiatives, we recognized that there was a real need for a scheme to promptly help ‘grass roots’ groups, charities and volunteers doing so much good in our communities. Some of these have been operating for years, but we’ve also seen other great ones emerge during the pandemic, all doing a lot with a little and we want to ensure we can assist them where possible."
Initially, each Borough Councillor will have access to £1000 to support local community groups and activity on their ward, for use this financial year.
Cllr Dark added: “We have 55 Councillors covering the 550 square miles the borough covers. By allocating this fund to each Councillor for distribution we know that it will reach groups and start to help in all parts of West Norfolk.”
Each Councillor can make a maximum of 20 financial awards, they can also work with other Councillors to pool their allocation towards projects that have the support of more than one Councillor.