[17
APR 00] COVENTRY CITY COUNCIL NEWS
Community Chest Opened For Coventry Groups
BY ANTONY HOPKER
Community
groups in Coventry are set to receive more than £37,000 in grants to
continue millennium celebrations.
Decisions
are to be made on Thursday on the second round of the Community Chest
‘Celebrate 2000’ fund.
The
money has been given by Coventry City Council to support community
events being planned by non profit-making groups.
Members
of the events Policy team are to rubber-stamp the second wave of
applications, which will include money for popular group the Notables.
The
band wants to run a series of events reflecting post-war Coventry
through music.
Other
activities up for approval include a millennium harvest held by the
Allesley Walled Garden Group and a day of creative crafts and fun
activities for children of all ages.
Cllr
Gillian Darby (Labour, Whoberley), acting chair of the Events Policy
team, said:
“The
Millennium is a special time and groups all over the city want to
celebrate it in a range of unique ways.
”The
Community Chest is our way of offering financial support to a range
of exciting events which will reflect Coventry’s proud culture.
“All
of the events that we support will add to the vibrancy of the local
community, be open and accessible to people with disabilities and in
some cases enable the event to actually take place.”
Event
organisers had to show that they met 14 separate criteria before being
considered for the money.
Twenty-nine
bids have been rejected, including a trip to Disneyland proposed by
the Catholic Fellowship, the annual Donkey Derby run by Coventry Lions
club and the Godiva procession.
A
further 11 applications have been deferred while further information
is sought and many of the 29 successful groups were not given the full
amount they asked for.
Cllr
Darby added:
“We
have been overwhelmed by the number of applications that we received
for this round of funding and this just goes to confirm the belief
in the community spirit that there is in our city.
“People
from all areas are getting together to put on all sorts of events
and we are delighted that we will be able to support many of
them.”
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