Airbus Community Awards

Do you know of a community group that is making a difference locally and could do with some extra funding? If you do, you might like to nominate them for the Airbus Community Awards. To find out more, visit www.bristolpost.co.uk/airbus

Grants Advice sessions

Are you a community group looking for advice on how to apply for Member Awarded Funding or Area Wide Grants?

If so, you can book a 30 minute slot between 10am and 1pm on Monday 6 November. The sessions take place at the Council Offices, Badminton Road, Yate, BS37 5AF. To book a place, please contact the team on 01454 865865 (Mon-Fri 9am to 4pm) or grants@southglos.gov.uk. It would be useful to know when booking which subject area you are interested in.

Aviva Community Fund

The Aviva Community Fund is now open for applications for funding from £1,000 up to £25,000 for an important cause in your community.

All you have to do is enter a project for your community organisation – even if you took part previously – and tell them what a difference these much-needed funds could make. You can find out more here.

Grants for community groups

Are you involved in a community group that benefits residents across South Gloucestershire? Do you need some financial support?

If so, you can now apply to South Glos Council for an Area Wide Grant (AWG). The maximum grant is £3,000, though higher awards may be possible for exceptional projects. You can find out more by visiting www.southglos.gov.uk/AWG and registering your group with the online grants system. Once you've done that, you can request an application form by contacting the Grants Helpline on 01454 865865 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm) or emailing grants@southglos.gov.uk

If you're looking for funding for a project that helps residents in just some parts of South Gloucestershire, don't forget about the Member Awarded Funding, where each councillor has £3,000 to spend on local projects that benefit residents in their ward. Do get in touch with us if you're considering making an application.

Area Wide Grants have been missing since the Conservatives scrapped the Area Forums and with them the grants that were decided at the Forum meetings and replaced them with Member Awarded Funding. Money was set aside from last year's grant pot for area wide grants but the scheme is only now being put in place to award them. Unfortunately decisions will be made by a single Cabinet Member, rather than a committee of members as it would have been in the past - another example of power being concentrated in the hands of a few.

 To view all of the grants available through South Gloucestershire Council visit www.southglos.gov.uk/grants

Grants for local projects

Once again in 2017/18 South Gloucestershire councillors will have £3,000 each to allocate to community projects or to spend on additional council services that benefit people in their ward. It is up to individual councillors how they go about making their allocations - if you have a project in mind, please contact your local councillor or councillors to discuss it.

Funding awarded to local groups

This year the old Community Grants were scrapped and replaced with a scheme where each councillor has £3,000 to spend on projects that benefit communities in their ward. Westerleigh Ward Councillor Claire Young allocated £1,500 to Coalpit Heath Cricket Club to buy sight screens, which they need at the level they are now playing at, and £1,500 to St Saviour's Church Hall to go towards replacing their unreliable and inefficient boiler.

For groups that benefit a large part of South Gloucestershire, there will be a chance to bid for South Glos-wide funding. A decision on how the scheme will operate is expected to be taken at the next Environment and Community Services committee meeting later this month.

Grants for community projects

The old Community Grants have been scrapped and replaced with a scheme where each councillor has a pot of money to spend on projects that benefit communities in their ward. Each councillor has £3,000 to spend this year. If you’ve got an idea for a project, please contact your local councillor.

Time running out for central heating grants

Time is running out for households without central heating to apply for a grant of up to £4,500 to have a system installed.
The funding is only available until the end of August and will cover the complete installation, including the heating source, pipework and radiators.

To see how you could benefit contact the Warm and Well advice line on 0800 500 3076, or emailing warm&well@severnwye.org.uk or by texting ‘WARM’ to 83010.

Have your say on changes to community grants

Local councillors used to award grants to local community groups and charities at the Area Forum meetings. Now the forums have been scrapped, the ruling Conservatives are replacing community grants with a scheme of "Member Awarded Funding". This means each councillor would be given a small sum of money to spend locally - for grants to groups, matched funding for local projects or topping up local council services.

Your Focus Team still believes that the Area Forums, where councillors came together in public to make decisions across an area, were a more transparent method of awarding funding. Unfortunately the Conservatives disagree. If you are involved in local community activities, please take the time to look at the details of what's proposed and have your say before 15 July.

Grants for local groups

The Frome Vale Area Forum had some tough decisions to make on grants on Thursday night, with very little money left in the pot for this year. Normally at this time we'd be able to allocate money for the coming financial year, but with the axing of the Area Forums there is no coming year's money to allocate. Details are not yet clear on how the grant system will work.

Two local groups were successfully in winning funding. Fromeside Gymnastics club were granted a total of £1740.52 and the Floral Friends of Frampton £300.

Grants for community groups

There is still time to apply to South Glos for the next round of grants for community groups. The closing date is 17th November and decisions will be made at the Area Forum next March.

You can find out more information about how to apply here. The amounts left to allocate for each forum are for the decisions the Area Forum will be making this year about the previous round of grant applications. When they make decisions on this round of applications in March the Area Forum will be allocating money from next year's budget. The amount will be set as part of the budget setting process in February.

Frome Vale Area Forum next week

The Frome Vale Area Forum (which covers Frampton Cotterell, Ladden Brook and Westerleigh wards) takes place on Thursday 9th July at 7pm at Shireway Community Association, Yate.

As well as the usual open session where you can have your say on local issues, the agenda includes the allocation of community grants, presentations about food/waste recycling plus a presentation from BT about broadband.

Severn Vale Area Forum tomorrow

The Severn Vale Area Forum (which covers Charfield ward) takes place on Wednesday 1st July at 7pm at Turnberries Community Centre, Thornbury.

As well as the usual open session, the agenda includes the allocation of community grants, presentations about food/waste recycling plus a presentation from BT about broadband.

Next chance to apply for grants

Community groups have until 10th April to apply for grants to be awarded at the July meetings of the Area Forums.

Frome Vale Area Forum, which covers an area including Frampton Cotterell, Ladden Brook and Westerleigh wards, has £21,450 left for community grants, while Severn Vale Area Forum, whose area includes Charfield Ward, has £48,599 left. It is also possible to apply for New Homes Bonus and Positive Activities Funding (the latter is for provision for young people).

More information and links to the online application system are available from this page.

Applications can be made throughout the year, which decisions being taken in July, September, December and March, but the money available will reduce as the year goes on. The amount available will be updated on the Grants page after each meeting.

Grant success for local groups

A number of groups in the Ladden Frome area were successful in getting grants at last week's Area Forum:

• Floral Friends of Frampton - £1840
• Tytherington Rocks FC - £1000
• Wickwar Wanderers FC - £1250
• Wickwar Pre-School - £1212
• 1st Wickwar Brownies - £1240
• Frampton Cotterell Male Voice Choir - £750

Severn Vale Area Forum next week

The next Severn Vale Area Forum meeting, which covers Charfield ward, is on Wednesday 4th March at 7pm in Turnberries Community Centre, Thornbury .

Items on the agenda include a presentation from Avon Fire and Rescue raising awareness of carbon monoxide poisoning, decisions on community and New Homes Bonus (NHB) grants and consideration of youth funding. Members will also be deciding which highway schemes are a priority and considering objections received following the public advertisement of local transport schemes.

The next round of meetings will take place in July. If you would like to receive details of meetings in your area contact Democratic Services on 01454 864425 or visit www.southglos.gov.uk/areaforum

Further information regarding grant funding is available on 01454 865865 or www.southglos.gov.uk/grants

Next chance to have your say at Frome Vale Area Forum

The next Frome Vale Area Forum meeting is on Thursday 5th March at 7pm in Shireway Community Centre, Yate.

Items on the agenda include a presentation from Avon Fire and Rescue raising awareness of carbon monoxide poisoning, decisions on community and New Homes Bonus (NHB) grants and consideration of youth funding.

We will also be deciding which highway schemes are a priority. So if you'd like to see the Henfield or Church Road traffic calming proposals implemented or further measures for Westerleigh investigated, come along and have your say.

The next round of meetings will take place in July. If you would like to receive details of meetings in your area contact Democratic Services on 01454 864425 or visit www.southglos.gov.uk/areaforum

Further information regarding grant funding is available on 01454 865865 or www.southglos.gov.uk/grants

Grants for community groups

Local voluntary organisations, community groups and Parish Councils have until Wednesday 26th November to apply for a range of grant funding from South Gloucestershire Council - Community Grants, New Homes Bonus (NHB) and Positive Activities Subsidy (PAS) grants.  The final decisions on all three will be made by councillors at the area forum meeting in March.

Community Groups are aimed at projects that benefit local people. Generally the grants are less than £3,000 but more can be awarded if the Forum thinks it is justified.

New Homes Bonus funding is a grant which the council receives annually from central government, based on the number of homes built or brought back into use. This money would typically be used for larger projects. It's worth contacting your ward councillor to find out more, as the number of new homes built has varied greatly between the wards.

The Positive Activities Subsidy grant funding is to help local young people aged 13 to 19 (up to 25 for disabled people) to take part in, or initiate, activities.  Applications should be for projects which are accessible, affordable, wanted and valued by young people. Frome Vale has very little of this funding left to allocate.

To apply visit www.southglos.gov.uk/grants (free internet access is available at all South Gloucestershire libraries). For more information call the grants helpline on 01454 865865 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm) or email grants@southglos.gov.uk

Manor Hall Open Day

On Saturday 18th October, the Manor Hall will be celebrating the latest stage of their £100,000 renovation with an Open Day. Doors open at 10am, with a short ballet performance at 11am. Local MP Steve Webb will be officially unveiling the refurbishments at 2pm. Why not come along, enjoy the refreshments and find out what the Manor Hall can offer?

The Manor Hall management committee is always looking for new volunteers to become trustees. If you think you would find it rewarding to help take responsibility for this Grade II listed building and manage it for the benefit of the local community, please contact Jean Butler.

We're aware of concerns about the future of the Coalpit Heath Pre-School, which is held in the Manor Hall. Both the hall and the pre-school are very much valued by local people and local councillor Claire Young has offered to help them both with any issues they may face. We have been reassured that the Manor Hall committee has not given notice to the Pre-School.  The committee has offered the Pre-School a new contract and are hoping that this issue will soon be resolved by mutual agreement. If you have any concerns, please do get in touch.

Apply for a grant

Local voluntary groups can now apply for a grant of up to £3,000 from South Gloucestershire Council to benefit their local community.

The old grant system has been streamlined and the Area Forums will be making a decision on grants up to four times per year. The grants are available to groups to develop specific projects and provide activities that meet local needs. Projects can include a range of topics including arts and culture, sport, children and play, community safety, developing communities, supporting vulnerable people to promoting equality and tackling poverty.

If you would like to apply for funding, applications for the first round can be made up until the closing date on Monday 2 June. For more information and to make an application visit www.southglos.gov.uk/grants Alternatively, you can call the helpline Monday to Friday between 9am and 4pm on 01454 865865, or email grants@southglos.gov.uk