Westmorland and Furness Council’s Locality Board for Eden has approved a series of grants to support a range of initiatives across the area.
At a recent meeting of the Board (22 January), members backed the recommendations of the Children & Young People Working Group, providing a much-needed financial boost to community-based projects aimed at benefiting young people.
These included an award of £4,900 to Lakes International Comic Art Festival towards their Manga-Mashup sessions; £3,000 to Penrith Cricket Club towards delivering after-school cricket clubs; £2,960 to Euphoric Circus towards new parkour youth club sessions; £2,000 to The Cumbria Opera Group towards education outreach with local schools as part of The Cumbria Opera Festival 2025; and £2,400 to Bolton Memorial Hall towards renovations of a youth space.
Members also supported grants recently awarded by the Community Fund Grants Panel to support projects and initiatives across Eden. These included an award of £5,000 to Lazonby Swimming Pool refurbishments; £4,581 to CADAS towards upgraded IT equipment to enable access to support for people in rural areas; and £4,756 to Growing Well towards the purchase of a walk-in chiller to reduce waste and increase sales.
In addition, support was also given by Members to grants recently awarded by the Community Transport Grants Panel to support community transport projects across Eden. This includes an award of £8,000 to Appleby Grammar School Friends towards the purchase of a minibus to provide post-16 transport and provide a minibus for use by local community groups.
Councillor Lorna Baker, new Chair of Eden Locality Board, said:
“As a Locality Board we feel it is important to use the funding we have available to support and develop our communities across Eden. The projects and initiatives supported by our grant panels demonstrate a wide range of activities and how our funding can have a wide-reaching benefit across Eden.
But the Locality Board can only help if we know about the need, thus I would like to encourage groups across Eden to contact the Community Development Team to discuss any projects they are working on that may be eligible for funding.”
Applications for the Community Grants, 0-19 Youth Grants and Community Transport Grants are now open, and deadlines are as follows:
- Community Grants – Monday 17 February 2025
- 0-19 Youth Grants – Friday 21 February 2025
- Community Transport Grants – Monday 24 February 2025
For more information and an application pack, please contact the Eden Community Development Team by emailing Eden.AreaSupport@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk.