A NEW £175,000 fund for community projects in rural Devon has been launched by Devon Renaissance, the rural regeneration partnership organisation for the county. Called the Community Boost Fund, the scheme will be able to help small rural communities throughout the county improve facilities and make services available which would otherwise not exist. Liz Abell, Devon Renaissance project co-ordinator, said: 'This fund is fantastic news for rural Devon. We know there is a huge demand for funding of this type and so are pleased to be able to offer this to our rural communities which are among the most deprived in the country in terms of their ability to access services. 'We can support up to half a project's total costs as long as our contribution does not exceed £15,000.' The fund is aimed at building or refurbishing community facilities like village halls and combined Post Offices and shops so that essential community services such as education, access to basic groceries, post office and personal and business banking and advice type services can be provided. The Community Boost Fund can fund up to half a project's costs, with a minimum grant of £5,000 and a maximum of £15,000. The money is aimed at capital projects rather than providing ongoing staff and overhead costs. The scheme is looking for projects such as the repair of a village hall to allow community services to take place, or the refurbishment of a building to allow post office services to be delivered. The success of the pilot for the scheme last year has already created demand and new projects already approved include one at Branscombe in South Devon, to which the CBF contributed £5,000 towards a total bill of £10,500, and another at Bridestowe in West Devon at the other end of the scale which has got £15,000 towards a multi-use community centre costing £500,000. Communities wanting to take advantage of the new fund will have to get their skates on. Projects will have to be completed by March next year in order to qualify for the cash. To find out more, email [email protected]">[email protected] or call Devon Renaissance on 01837 658643 and speak to a member of the CBF team.
