The latest round of community grants has been announced, with 34 local groups benefitting from more than £20,000.
This instalment was the final allocation for the 2012/2013 financial year – a year that has seen community groups in Cheshire East receive a total of £96,133 in grant funding.
Grants are available to support community, environmental, sports, arts, heritage and play projects.
Only one grant can be awarded to each organisation per financial year and organisations often use the grants to complement, or even 'unlock', other funding to finance larger schemes.
Applications are judged on a number of criteria and they should be able to display that their project: enhances the quality of life for Cheshire East residents; increases involvement in the community; demonstrates the potential to be sustained in the future; and that it can attract more participants.
Local groups who will receive grants in the latest round include Alderley Edge Orchestra who were awarded £250 towards the hire of soloists for concerts and for promotion.
Nether Alderley Looking Forward, a group formed to produce a parish plan, were awarded £250 to carry out a questionnaire within the community to gather views on what facilities the parish will need in the future and Chelford Cricket Club were awarded £200 to help their junior coaches gain coaching qualifications to achieve ECB club mark accreditation.
Councillor Lesley Smetham, Cabinet support member for strategic communities, said: "We are delighted that our grant scheme has helped 119 community and voluntary organisations over the last year.
"We are also pleased that despite the tough financial climate, we are not planning a reduction in funding for next year's community grant scheme – this is in recognition of the important community activity these grants support.
"I would advise anyone interested in applying for the next round of grants to get in touch and find out more."
More information on Community Grants can be found in the Community and Living section of Cheshire East Council's website.
The next deadline for applications is March 29th.
