Groups across Falkirk district benefit from £1.2m in Community Choice funding

Community groups and organisations will benefit from over £1.2 million in funding after local people voted for their favourite projects to improve their area.
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The Community Choices Place-based Capital programme will see everything from public used defibrillators installed to a pit memorial upgraded, from repairing the roof on a local community theatre to installing specialist play equipment for children with additional support needs.

Run by Falkirk Council in partnership with the Falkirk Health and Social Care Partnership, Community Choices aims to provide local people with a way to apply for public funding to improve their local area and vote to decide how public money is spent.

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Almost 16,000 eligible votes were cast in favour of the projects that residents felt best reflected the needs of their local community, which helped ensure 19 out of the 27 bids secured funding - ranging from £25,000 to £190,000 - to build something new, improve an asset, or purchase equipment.

Martin Stuart, Treasurer for Friends of Forth Valley First Responder who will install Public Access Defibrillators across the Council area thanks to Community Choices funding.Martin Stuart, Treasurer for Friends of Forth Valley First Responder who will install Public Access Defibrillators across the Council area thanks to Community Choices funding.
Martin Stuart, Treasurer for Friends of Forth Valley First Responder who will install Public Access Defibrillators across the Council area thanks to Community Choices funding.

Bids that were not successful either didn't secure the minimum threshold of 10 per cent of the eligible votes in their ward or, where they did, the monies were already secured by bids with higher vote counts.

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Councillor Cecil Meiklejohn, Leader of Falkirk Council, said: "A huge thank you goes to all those who submitted bids. It was evident a lot of time and effort had gone into creating projects that would strengthen communities. Thank you also goes to all those who voted. By doing so, you have ensured a wide range of projects will now get funding to help communities become fairer, healthier, more connected and more inclusive."

Securing £31,520 will help the KLSB Community Group (KLSB) turn its dream of opening a community hub and kitchen into a reality.

Keeping Larbert and Stenhousemuir Beautiful now have funding to install a community hub/kitchen in their King Street premises.Keeping Larbert and Stenhousemuir Beautiful now have funding to install a community hub/kitchen in their King Street premises.
Keeping Larbert and Stenhousemuir Beautiful now have funding to install a community hub/kitchen in their King Street premises.
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Initially set up in 2018 as a litter picking group by husband-and-wife team John and Sheona McMorran, KLSB quickly grew its remit to plant flowers in the local area - and has since established over 100 micro gardens in and around Larbert and Stenhousemuir.

In November 2019, the group opened a small community pantry. During the pandemic and working alongside Stenhousemuir Football Club and Falkirk Council, KLSB set up and ran a food distribution centre out of the Dobbie Hall, helping thousands of people put food on the table during the pandemic.

Having gained charitable status last year, the group moved the food pantry to the former Co-op building at King Street, Stenhousemuir, where it continues to offer weekly supplies of food, personal hygiene and other essential household items.

KLSB will use the funding to set up a community hub and kitchen in 17 King Street, Stenhousemuir to help combat food poverty by providing healthy, nutritious meals that will be distributed to the most vulnerable residents via the food pantry for free.

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John McMorran, KLSB chairman, said: “Without the backing of the community the kitchen would have remained a pipedream, so thank you to everyone who took the time to vote.”

A lunch club for the vulnerable and elderly will be established alongside classes in CPR and crochet. KLSB will also work with Larbert High School and Developing the Young Workforce to offer young people the chance to volunteer and gain valuable work experience in a fully working kitchen and café.

Work to fitout the hub and kitchen will begin shortly, with KLSB expecting to open the doors this June.

Having spotted a post on social media promoting Community Choices, Friends of Forth Valley First Responders submitted a bid to the Falkirk area-wide category and has now secured £73,485 to install lifesaving equipment in each council ward.

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Set up in 2013, the Falkirk-based charity supports the work of Forth Valley First Responders (FVFR), a group of volunteers trained by The Scottish Ambulance Service to attend 999 emergencies before the arrival of an ambulance.

It will use the Place-based Capital funding to further improve access to Public Access Defibrillators (PADs) by installing an additional 45 PADs in the local area – that’s five in each council ward.

Martin Stuart, Treasurer for Friends of Forth Valley First Responders, said he was “speechless” when he heard the news the bid had been successful and thanked everyone who voted for the project.

He said: “Every year the Scottish Ambulance Service responds to around 200 people in the Falkirk area who have a sudden, unexpected out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Only 10 per cent of these people survive. Research shows that PADs, placed within 150 metres of a person having a cardiac arrest, increases their chance of survival by 50 to 70 per cent.

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“Although Falkirk currently doesn’t have enough PADs – as ideally you would have one every 100 to 150 meters – this funding allows us to buy, install, and maintain an additional 45 PADs, raising the number that can be deployed by the Scottish Ambulance Service in the Falkirk Council area to 115.”

Successful groups were:

Falkirk-Wide Projects: Friends of Forth Valley First Responders – £73,485 and Barony Players £29,900.

Bo’ness and Blackness: Bo’ness Children’s Fair £46,213, Bo’ness United Community Football Club £35,000 and Newtown Park Association £96,049.

Grangemouth: Syngenta Juveniles FC100,300 and Friends of Inchyra Park £36,075.

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Denny and Banknock: Dunipace FC £129,000 and Denny YMCA £29,000.

Carse, Kinnaird and Tryst: Keep Larbert & Stenhousemuir Beautiful (KLSB) £31,520

Larbert and Bonnybridge: The Boys Brigade £25,000.

Falkirk North: Bainsford Hall Community Group £190,000 and Falkirk Golf Club £39,800.

Falkirk South: Bantaskine Residents Association £81,000, Tamfourhill Community Hub £31,910 and Ettrick Dochart Community Hall £25,500.

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Lower Braes: Westquarter and Redding Community Project £77,000, Sir William Wallace Grand Lodge of Scotland Free Colliers £38,000, Laurieston Tennis Club £75,000, Friends at Braes [High School] £15,500 and Avonbank Fishery CIC £9275.

Upper Braes: Shieldhill Welfare Club £82,504, Maddiston Primary School Parents Association £110,000, California Community Hub £27,000, Braes Greenspace – Shieldhill Hillcrest SCIO £56,050, Shieldhill and California Community Council £74,500 and Bailliefields Community Hub SCIO £95,000.

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