Eight projects to share £72,000 in Frodsham Windfarm grants

EIGHT projects in the wider Frodsham area are to be awarded a total of just over £72,000 in the latest series of grants to be awarded by the Marshes Community Benefit Fund panel.
They include the 4th Frodsham Scout Group, Alvanley and Manley Pre School, Helsby Sports Club and Frodsham Allotments.
It was the eighth round of awards since the fund was established in 2016 to distribute community payments made by Frodsham Windfarm Ltd.
Panel member Joycey Bailey said: “When the panel made the last awards back in May 2020 it did not envisage that, in November due national lockdown, we would again have to consider the latest applications through the Zoom meeting platform, but this did not deter the panel’s scrutiny and, as always, there was much debate regarding all the applications. The members agreed to award a total of just over £72,000 to eight projects which, in the views of the panel majority, really encapsulated the requirements and objectives of the Community Benefit Fund.”
The 4th Frodsham Scout Group’s Scout hut was, prior to Covid 19, very popular as a venue to hire out and the improvements afforded by their £11,500 award will go towards phase one of the planned works, ensuring the garage refurbishment is completed. Once all works are completed, the group hopes the more attractive space will encourage hirers, including businesses, to book the Scout Hut when it reopens.
Alvanley and Manley Pre School provides wraparound care for Alvanley and Manley Federated Primary School. They have a before and after school club and the children are transported to and from school by the club. Many parents have specified that they could not do without this service. The pre-school plan to spend the awarded £8,500 on purchasing a nine-seater minibus, which will enable them to deliver wraparound care transporting the children, aged 2 to 11 between the Federated schools, for parents who have to work.
Elton Community Centre impressed the panel with their detailed application and the vision that they had to transform the community centre to further help those in need in these unprecedented times. The group plan to use the allotted £18,120 on improving the facilities for the village whose population is now twice the size that it was when the community centre was first built.
Frodsham Allotments manage and supervise the Association’s Allotment Gardens, educating allotment gardeners, preserving skills and advocating the benefits of environmentally sustainable allotment gardening. They wish to spend the allotted £2,500 on providing a mains water supply to their Kingsway site.
Established in 1895 Helsby Football Club is a successful local football team playing in the West Cheshire League and Wirral and Chester League. With a move to the new sports Academy impacting on their current funding the awarded £3,000 will ensure that they can meet their pitch fees and continue playing throughout the coming season.
Helsby Sports Club, formed in 1991, is a community amateur sports club offering sport and leisure facilities to the communities of Helsby and surrounding villages. This not-for-profit organisation plans to use their awarded £8,054 to buy maintenance equipment for their new 3G pitch and a large storage container in which to house the equipment. The 3G pitch will be available for football and other contact sports such as rugby, American football etc. The club hope that the facility, when built and properly maintained, will offer the best all year-round access sporting facilities for all the members of the community, at their brand new sports facility due to open in the new year.
After many years of no investment Ince Village Hall has fallen below government and social standards, and the hall’s trustees plan to spend the £18,000 award to begin a multi-stage project, to rejuvenate the hall’s purpose.
Frodsham’s Red Lion Crown Green Bowls is an independent volunteer group that promotes the sport of Crown Green Bowling. They wish to use the £2,500 awarded to expand and encourage people of all ages, abilities and ethnicities to take part in crown green bowling by purchasing additional equipment which will enable them to set up weekly sessions locally.
Panel chairman Dianne Walker praised the efforts of the community volunteer groups who took time and effort to apply for funding. She said that the total awards to date are now just short of half a million pounds.
Panel members considered the successful projects as clearly defined with a demonstrated need, were well thought out and are of significant benefit to the residents in the areas surrounding the Frodsham Wind Farm.
As always, the panel members will be monitoring the projects as they develop to ensure they meet the objectives and conditions set out in the signed award agreements with good governance.
Projects that were not awarded funding in this round have also been notified. Eligible schemes that were unsuccessful in this round should not be discouraged and may reapply for future rounds.
Applications for the next round of funds will re-open on December 1 and close on February next year.