Local groups benefit from Community Fund

Local groups are celebrating their selection to receive grants through the Crook Hill Community Fund. Whitworth Valley Football Club (“WVFC”) received this year’s largest grant of £10,000 to improve their training facilities at the Rawstron Street Football Ground.

Lisa McDowell, WVFC treasurer, said: “We are thrilled that we have been awarded £10,000 from the Crook Hill Community Benefit Fund. This will significantly help to further develop our facilities to benefit our community, players and club.”

The second largest grant of £7,000 was secured by the Croft and Town House Fisheries in Littleborough, which will be used to undertake improvements at two of their angling sites.

Ray Barber, secretary, said: “This grant will enable the society to vastly improve the accessibility of our angling facilities at Croft and Town House Fisheries and enable us to replace all our fishing platforms with recycled plastic platforms including two disabled platforms.”

Other projects being supported include The Friends of Barkers Wood, Dearnley Play Area, Hare Hill House, in Littleborough, Rochdale Walton Angling Society, the Water Ski Academy and U3A in Whitworth.

Jan Kidd, Conservation and Education Officer for Rochdale Field Naturalists’ Society (who work with the Friends of Barkers Wood), said: “This grant means a great deal to us. It will really help bring the community together to make Barker's wood a better place for people and for wildlife. Through habitat and infrastructure improvement, and providing learning opportunities for children, we hope to continue promoting the continued care of the woodland.”

Community events and activities which will take place throughout 2018 and beyond thanks to the grants provided by the Fund include the Littleborough Food & Drink Festival and the World War One Centenary celebrations in Whitworth.

This is a major milestone as the Fund has now awarded over £100,000 to projects in the local area. Forty-one groups have received grants since the award of the first grant in 2016.

The funding for the community fund is provided by Vantage Infrastructure, an independent investment firm, which manages the Crook Hill wind farm with the support of Partnership for Renewables.

The fund distributes £35,000 annually over the 20 – 25-year lifetime of the project.

Groups located within a 5km radius of the wind farm can apply for grants of between £250 and £10,000.

The fund is being administered by national charity GrantScape.

Groups wishing to make an application can  contact the Fund Manager, Liz Payne on 07963 987653 if they would like to discuss a potential project or require assistance in making an application.

The next application deadline is in January 2019.