Council grants for town community groups

Grants of £500 are being awarded to Stone and District Stroke Club, Stone and District Swimming Club and Aston Lodge Residents’ Association after their applications to the town council for funding proved successful.

Stone and District Swimming Club is facing a funding shortfall of £1,800 a year after a local sponsor had to stop its financial support.

The club said: “This is a sizeable and difficult loss for our not for profit, volunteer run club. The training of new volunteer teachers is vital to the continuation of SADSC.

“Without knowledgeable, experienced and qualified teachers, and a continuing commitment to their personal development of skills and knowledge, a swimming club cannot exist. With additional funding in the form of the Stone Town Grant, we would be able to add additional swim coaching experience, as part of that teacher development

“Even though the last couple of years have been very difficult and challenging at times, with closures of Stone Leisure Centre, and therefore of the club, we have managed to increase our numbers of swimmers, and also to extend our club sessions on a Monday evening, by an extra hour. This will allow us to teach up to 140 young people, every Monday, between 6pm and 9pm to be fit, confident and happy swimmers,”

Town Mayor, Councillor Jonathan Powell, said: “At the beginning of my Mayoral year it was my honour to be invited to watch a sponsored swimming session. The biggest thing was the passion of the teachers that were there, giving their time up for no financial reward.

“I think this is an excellent organisation this council should be supporting through these grants.”

Aston Lodge Residents’ Association sought funding to buy a strimmer and hedge cutter to help keep footpaths clear.

The group said in its application: “The Aston Lodge estate has several miles of footpaths, the majority of which are unadopted by the authorities. Many of the footpaths are bordered by scrub land that is predominantly made up of brambles and nettles. There are also 10 large sections of hedgerow that were planted by the developers over 20 years ago but are also unadopted and not maintained by the authorities.

“Over the last three years, the ALRA volunteers have worked hard to restore overgrown footpaths by cutting back the brambles and nettles which had invaded the footpaths as well as successfully ‘taming’ the massively overgrown pyracantha hedgerows. This work continues year on year to keep the pathways open and safe.

“The volunteers cannot do their work without the use of a strimmer and hedge cutter. These have so far been provided by one volunteer who brings his own power tools and PPE. This volunteer is now not able to commit as much time to the team, also his strimmer and hedge cutter are getting worse for wear.

“Therefore, ALRA needs to buy a durable strimmer and hedge cutter that the volunteers can use whenever they need to. The tools get a lot of use with heavy scrub and shrubs so they have to be robust. Without these tools ALRA will not be able to keep the pathways clear and safe. We also need to buy appropriate PPE for the person using the tools.

“The volunteers work hard to protect the natural environment. They only remove growth that impedes the pavements and they build insect habitat with the hedge cuttings. Other green waste is bagged and removed by Streetscene, which is big help to the group.”

Councillor Ian Fordham said: “This is one of the most active residents’ associations we have in the town. They are out and about doing good work on a very regular basis and I am very much in favour of giving them support.”

Stone and District Stroke Club plans to use its windfall on coach hire so that members can enjoy two outings. Stroke survivors also meet weekly for exercise sessions, games, talks, entertainment and socialising.

Councillor Jim Davies said: “I think the club does an excellent job. During my time as Mayor I enjoyed going down there and seeing the great work it does.”

Stone Town Council considers requests from local organisations for funding twice a year.

But much of the grants budget has remained unspent in recent years due to a lack of applications or requests from organisations outside the town being turned down. This led to £12,000 being removed from the grant funding pot as part of the latest town council budget – and a plea from Councillor Davies for town organisations to apply for funding if they needed it.

The next round of grants will be considered at Stone Town Council’s July 5 meeting and the deadline for applications is June 17.

For more information visit stonetowncouncil.gov.uk/grants.