Devon community projects TAP into funding
A funding project bringing together county, district, town and parish councils is kickstarting community projects across Devon and hopes to do more in 2015
The 'Town and Parish Fund' or TAP is the name given to the initiative whereby Devon County Council allocates £1 per elector per annum and district councils contribute 10p per elector, totalling around £600,000
This money is available for towns and parishes to join together to apply for funding that can make a difference to their communities.
Well over half a million pounds was allocated to a huge range of projects from village hall improvements to new footpaths. It also funded emergency drainage clearance, a community bee keeping project and community defibrillators.
The idea behind the TAP fund is to stimulate ideas and encourage parishes and communities to work together. Organisations are also encouraged to make a financial contribution to allow them to be more proactive and to take a lead in creating greater community resilience. The funding is administered by district councils.
Devon County Council Leader John Hart, said; “Devon County Council is continuing to make funds available to communities to use how they see best. This money is available to Parish and Town Councils to spend in ways that will benefit their communities. I firmly believe decisions should be made as locally as possible to encourage local accountability and I have always advocated more partnership with our district, town and parish colleagues. If we believe in the ‘resilience’ of our smaller communities, then this is one way of pump-priming activity”.
Cabinet Member for Performance and Engagement, Cllr Barry Parsons says; "This is a good opportunity for town and parish councils to get together and make a local investment in their area towards the things that matter and are important to them. There have been plenty of examples where parish councils have collaborated, providing more impetus to their project, fostering partnerships and making successful applications so I would certainly recommend this way of working."
Lesley Smith from the Devon Association of Local Councils said; "The TAP funding is giving a real boost to projects in the county and we can see long lasting effects which in turn are prompting a feeling of optimism and closer working relationships within communities. In many cases, they've been the catalyst to encourage more volunteering in a particular area and cross parish working which would not have happened otherwise."
Some examples include:
In Exeter, over £90,000 has helped fund 'Nightstop Devon' developing a crashpad project to offer longer term housing for vulnerable homeless 16-25 year olds and towards the Exeter Citizens Advice Centre to support specialist advice to clients affected by welfare change.
In East Devon nearly £85,000 went towards public access to woodland, computer equipment to teach computer skills, gazebos for community events, a water tap at allotments, knotweed removal, bus shelters and a hawking contractor to reduce the numbers of seagulls in town centres.
In West Devon, approximately £42,000 has been ploughed into a variety of community initiatives including Wi-Fi for village halls in Exbourne & Jacobstowe and Belstone & South Tawton. Defibrillators and training for Buckland Monachorum and Dartmoor Forest. In the parishes of Sticklepath, Belstone, Sampford Courtney, improvements have been made to the 1st South Zeal Scout Hut.
Over £75,000 was used in Teignbridge for tourism marketing initiatives, defibrillators, play areas, new footpaths, tree work, floodlights for the multi sport court and a social isolation and community care project.
In Mid Devon just over £50,000 has gone towards publicity materials, village hall improvements, play areas, resurfacing a car park, CCTV, uniforms for a town band, and a community bee-keeping project.
In Torridge nearly £80,000 was allocated to help provide funds for a horticultural show, a community transport scheme, village hall improvements, play area improvements and defibrillators.
