Falkirk Council has cash to give away to communities

Clubs, groups, community organisations and individuals with ideas to improve their local area can once again apply for funding through Community Choices to help make them happen.

Community Choices is a grants programme that provides local people with a way to apply for public funding to improve their local area and vote to decide how public money is spent.

More than £3 million is to be invested across Falkirk's nine wards through the initiative, which is run by Falkirk Council and Falkirk Health and Social Care Partnership.

Earlier this year nearly 60 projects secured funding totalling £640,000 through Community Choices.

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One group which was successful was the Friends of Dollar Park who received £80,000 to restore the area’s Dovecote to its former glory.

There are two funds available:

Applications for up to £5000 can be made to the Small Grants Programme for ideas and projects that will make a real difference to the lives of people living in each ward.

Place-based Capital Programme is for proposals that need a capital investment of more than £5000 to build something new, improve an asset or purchase equipment.

To find out more about Community Choices, including when you need to apply by, visit www.falkirk.gov.uk/communitychoices.

The ideas and projects must aim to make their neighbourhood either fairer, healthier, more connected or more inclusive.

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Applications that meet the criteria are then put to a public vote and must secure at least 10 per cent of the total eligible votes cast in their ward to secure funding.

Cecil Meiklejohn, leader of Falkirk Council, said: "Community Choices gives local people a way to directly influence how a set amount of public money is spent, putting forward ideas to improve their local area and voting for the proposals they want to make happen. It truly is democracy in action.

“Phase one highlighted communities have a real appetite to deliver activities and the social infrastructure that they know is important to them and we hope more groups, clubs, community organisations and individuals apply this time round."

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