Following on from our very good news post yesterday re Co-op, we thought we should give a quick recap of where we are with fundraising overall.
The playground project will cost £70,000. We – with the support of the community – have raised £20,000. The Council has pledged an additional £15,000 to the project, taking us to £35,000 overall.
We’ve applied to Reaching Communities (part of The Lottery Fund) for the remainder of the money. We’ve passed the first stage of the process, and are awaiting their final decision, which we should hopefully have by the end of the year. If we’re successful, the new playground will be installed in the first quarter of next year. If not, we have identified another fund we can apply to, but this will inevitably delay things.
We know that the crowdfunding campaign earlier this year seems ages ago, and people are keen to start seeing some return for their money – trust us, we feel your pain! We’re hopeful that the new football goals will be installed in the next few weeks (it’s approved and the money’s in place, we’re just waiting for the Council to give us an installation date).
In the last few months, we have installed a community notice board, we continue to maintain the community flower bed and bug house, we’ll be starting work on the wild flower meadow soon, and we’re in regular discussions with the Council and idverde about how we can tackle the dog poo problem (we’re hoping the dog warden will soon start making an appearance). We’ve also held numerous events including Family Fitness, Teddy Bears Picnic and Spooky Stories, with a Remembrance Walk this Sunday and Santa Dash in September still to come this year.
If there are other small improvements you’d like to see made to the park while we wait for the new playground – and particularly, if you could help us deliver any of these small improvements, please let us know.
In the meantime, thank you for your continued support and patience! Don’t give up on us, we’ll get there in the end!