Gainsborough: Community groups urged to apply for grants or the funding could be lost

Grants of between £1,000 to £100,000 are available from a funding pot of almost £700k which has been ring-fenced for the town by not for profit business WREN, which manages the Building Communities Fund for waste management company FCC Environment.

But despite the available funds the number of grant applications from groups in the town have been surprisingly low, prompting a ‘use it or lose it’ message from the company.

Kristian Dales, sales and marketing director at FCC Environment, said: “The aim of our Building Communities Fund is to help local people make their community a better place to live in and we believe there are lots of people in the town who are involved in things that would really benefit from some additional cash.”

“Maybe people don’t expect funding to be available in the current economic climate or perhaps they do realise it’s there but are nervous about applying for it.”

“But we need those applications in or the funding programme will close.”

Local projects that have recently benefited from funding include the Heritage Centre in North Street run by the Gainsborough Heritage Association, and the Gainsborough Rowing Club.

The FCC Building Communities Fund is just one of several funding programmes managed by a not-for-profit environmental body WREN which distributes grants to community projects on behalf of FCC Environment.

The grant money comes from landfill tax contributions made by FCC Environment to HM Revenue and Custom’s Landfill Communities Fund.

For more information on the FCC Building Communities Fund and how to apply for a grant ring Samantha on 01529 301960 or visit www.communitylincs.com and www.wren.org.uk.