TWO Tavistock community groups were this week celebrating a summer windfall in the latest round of Awards for All lottery grants.
Tavy District University of the Third Age has been given £2,960, which will allow it to buy a range of equipment, including slide and overhead projectors, a digital multi-media projector and amplification equipment.
Barry Hodge, Tavy U3A chairman, said: ?We are delighted ? this will give us the opportunity to enhance and enlarge our range of subject groups and encourage an increased membership.
?Our group is firmly established after 19 months? existence, now we can look to future growth with confidence.?
Mr Hodge said the award would help activity group leaders develop their skills and widen their knowledge base by making full use of resource materials available from the Third Age Trust, which holds slides, CDs, DVDs and videos on a huge range of subjects from geography to gardening.
?The equipment, and these resources, will enrich the content of specialised group and general meetings and facilitate the start-up of new groups such as astronomy, travel and languages,? said Mr Hodge.
And the Fitzford Residents Canal Bank Regeneration Project has been granted £1,500 by Awards for All.
The group intends to use the money to regenerate the area around Tavistock Canal opposite Fitzford Cottages.
David Sharpe of the regeneration project said the grant would be a great help towards the £5,000 total cost of the scheme to tidy up the canal bank.
?There were old railings and concrete posts on the bank which were in an appalling condition and people had been dumping stuff over the side of them. We got together a committee about a year ago and we?ve taken the posts and railings down, installed a kerb and widened the area so access is better,? said Mr Sharp.
?We?re replanting the bank with natural vegetation ? we?ve taken advice and we?re basically trying to keep it as natural as possible to attract the natural flora and fauna.?
Mr Sharp said the work, in addition to tidying up the area in front of Fitzford Cottages, also made a ?more aesthetically pleasing? outlook for people using Drake?s Walk, on the opposite side of the canal.
The residents? group have all chipped in contributions to the scheme, which also received grants from the town council, West Devon Borough Council and Tamar Valley Services ? Mr Sharp said the Awards for All money was the ?icing on the cake? as far as the group was concerned.
The Awards for All scheme makes grants of between £500 and £5,000 to ?grass roots? community groups and organisations.