Awarding of grants delayed by 'overwhelming popularity' of New Homes Bonus Fund

newhomes

A meeting to discuss the applications received for funding from the New Homes Bonus fund has been postponed.

The Wilmslow Area Award Group meeting to consider the applications was due to take place on Friday 18th January, however members have been notified that the Council needs more time to evaluate the large number of requests for funding.

A spokesperson for Cheshire East Council said "In total, we have received over 200 applications (together with a further 1500 supporting documents), which accumulates to over £7 million pounds worth of project applications.

"Due to the overwhelming popularity of the scheme, further time is required to evaluate, score and recommend the projects received, to ensure we achieve the scheme outcomes. We have made the decision to defer, by approximately 4 weeks, each of the Award Group meetings, which were originally planned to take place in January.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause but we need to ensure that each application is carefully considered, so that we can make strong and informed recommendations to you, at the Award Group meetings."

Cheshire East Council has set aside £2m over the next two years of its New Homes Bonus, which is a grant paid by Central Government to local authorities to reflect and incentivise housing growth within their areas to help address local priorities.

The figure for our area (which includes Wilmslow, Alderley Edge & Handforth) is £173,462 over the two years.

In October, the eight Cheshire East Councillors who represent Wilmslow, Alderley Edge and Handforth (Cllrs Gary Barton, Ellie Brooks, Craig Browne, Barry Burkhill, Toni Fox, Dennis Mahon, Rod Menlove and Don Stockton) met to discuss and agree the broad priorities for our area.

Each application for funding will be expected to address at least one of these, which are:

  • physical health & wellbeing
  • mental health & anxiety
  • social isolation & independent living

The potential project areas within each of the top priorities are:

Physical Health & Wellbeing

  • improving/developing parks, play areas, green spaces and leisure facilities
  • projects to encourage active lifestyles
  • improving and promoting use of walking and cycling routes
  • Environmental improvements eg clearing and weeding pathways, planting schemes

Mental Health & Anxiety

  • anxiety in young people
  • cyber access for all and raising awareness of use and abuse
  • mental health support
  • developing dementia friendly communities and dementia support

Social Isolation and Independent Living

  • projects to reduce social isolation in all ages and including vulnerable individuals
  • digital inclusion
  • community transport schemes
  • care in the community
  • community integration projects
  • improving access to local services and facilities
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