Area board grants for local groups

MELKSHAM Area Board awarded a number of community grants to local clubs, groups and organisations at their meeting this month.

A total of £9,349 was awarded at the meeting held on Wednesday 7th November. The grants were awarded to the following:

• The Age Friendly Steering Group were awarded £500 towards their business project, which aims to work with local businesses and organisations to enable residents to easily identify safe, accessible and hospitable facilities using an online platform and window stickers.

• Arts Together – a wellbeing service for frail, isolated older people living in and around Melksham that provides practical and emotional support using creative projects – was awarded £1,500.

• Melksham Without Parish Council and Atworth Parish Council were given £1,250 and £499 respectively towards benches as part of the area board’s age-friendly project to increase the number of benches in the town, to support people who need to take regular breaks when walking.

• Atworth Village Hall and Recreation Ground Committee was given £1,000 towards improving heating and insulation in the village hall.

• Read Easy Melksham, the local group that coaches adults to learn to read, was given £500 towards the purchase of a laptop and printer for their coordinator.

• Seend Lye Recreation Field was awarded £3,000 for the purchase of play area equipment to replace existing equipment that has reached the end of its life.

• Seend Parish Council was awarded £400 towards the purchase of a special bench commemorating the 25 soldiers from the parish who died in World War One.

• Bulkington Parish Council was awarded £700 towards the purchase of a storage unit for emergency planning equipment.