Axminster community projects have received more than £19,000 from Crowdfund East Devon scheme

Almost £70,000 has been given to 14 local community projects through Crowdfund grants from East Devon District Council, including several in Axminster.

Crowdfund East Devon started giving grants through a crowdfunding platform in February 2019, but after not having had any applications in the last four months, the council has decided to stop this and instead look at a different way to get the remaining funds it has available to good community projects.

The last date crowdfunding campaigns can be eligible and apply for the councils extra funding available through Crowdfunder is April 4 2022. This includes the projects having already raised a minimum of 25% of the total amount they're trying to raise from their local community.   

Since it started, Crowdfund East Devon has pledged the following amounts towards these successful community crowdfunding campaigns:

• £2,000 to No Toy Left Behind, an Axminster-based community interest company that aims to challenge the cultural norms of consumerism by offering clean, good quality secondhand toys of giftable quality, cutting down on waste.

• £4,000 to Axminster Gymnastics Club to help them upgrade their gymnastics equipment for use by children of six months to 16 years of age.

• £9,885 to two campaigns by the Community Waffle House CIC in Axminster. The first campaign was to help them set up at their first location in the town in 2019. The second was towards them moving to bigger premises as they were really successful and needed more space to provide more help to the local community.

• £3,500 to Pippins Community Centre in Axminster. Their campaign was to make the building watertight, windproof, safe and warm for the future, whilst making sure their room hire prices stayed affordable. 

• A total of £11,000 to two projects from Beer Men's Shed. The first one to build their first workshop, and the second was to add another workshop as the group was so popular. Beer Men's Shed uses a workshop environment to get men together from the area to make things, which helps them socialise, improve their mental and physical health, and feel less isolated.

• £6,000 to help a group of parents from Luppitt put a centrally located playground into the village, near Luppitt Village Hall. Rural life is amazing in so many ways but it can bring isolation and lack of social opportunities for children and teenagers, and their parents/carers.

• £3,000 towards a scheme from Transition Exmouth called Execargo, to buy electric cargo bikes. Local businesses, community groups and residents will be able to use ExeCargo for deliveries, transporting sports equipment etc.

• £7,500 to a project from Honiton TRIP Community Transport Association to help them buy a wheelchair accessible electric vehicle to replace a 17 year old vehicle that was at the end of its life. 

• £9,000 to Exmouth Town Council's campaign to provide custom made wheelchairs to allow people with mobility issues to access Exmouth's wonderful beach and sea. 

• £2,000 towards Sidmouth Science Festival 2020, to help them pay for experts and speakers to take part in the event.

• £4,867 towards the Budleigh Salterton Community Workshop's campaign. This project aimed to create a workshop and other recreational facilities in Budleigh Salterton for the community to enhance skills, confidence and social inclusion. 

• £5,160 to the Coleridge Memorial Trust towards placing a life-size statue of world famous poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, born in the town in 1772, at St Mary's Church in Ottery St Mary. 

Councillor Jack Rowland, East Devon District Council portfolio holder for finance, said: "As mentioned we have not seen any crowdfund new applications for over four months.

"The EDDC Community Grants Panel considered other options to allocate the remaining fund, and decided to recommend to launch a replacement one off scheme of grants of between £500 and £5,000. Further details will be published very soon."

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