Cheshire East Council pledges £39,000 to support community-led projects to improve the borough

A project to create wetlands in Wilmslow, facilities for visually impaired bowlers in Poynton, and the addition of 53 ‘lost’ names to a Macclesfield war memorial are among the community-led projects Cheshire East is supporting through the Cheshire East Crowd with £39,000 of funding.

The council pledged up to £9,500 to each of the projects, which were selected from ideas from community groups and individuals that want to improve their local area. In the last few weeks, the projects have been drumming up support from local people and businesses to show the strength of community buy-in for their ideas.

The crowdfunding campaigns have been put forward as part of the council’s Cheshire East Crowd – a programme run in partnership with civic crowdfunding website Spacehive, which invites communities to come together and propose ideas to regenerate their local areas.

Cllr Mick Warren, chair of the environment and communities committee, said:

“The Cheshire East Crowd continues to be a great way for people across the borough to drive innovative ways to improve their local communities. 

“We’re delighted to pledge our support to such a wide range of ideas that will help to strengthen local places across Cheshire East, supporting our vision of an open, fairer and greener borough. It would be wonderful to see people and businesses from across the borough getting behind these projects, helping them to reach their crowdfunding targets.”

The pledges announced today are part of a larger programme, which will look to invest up to £100,000 per annum into projects across Cheshire East over three years. 

Anyone from the borough has the opportunity to play their role in shaping Cheshire East’s future by proposing ideas, supporting campaigns and providing the skills and resources to help projects flourish. The projects include:

• 53 lost names for Macclesfield cenotaph: £3,068 from the council will support the addition of the names of 53 forgotten World War One local heroes to the cenotaph;
• ‘Wonderful Wetland’ (Wilmslow): a pledge of £7,411 from Cheshire East will support the restoration of wetland areas in The Carrs Park, Wilmslow, where new ponds and scrapes will help native wildlife to thrive;
• Bowls for visually impaired people (Poynton): a pledge of £1,121 from Cheshire East will support the replacement of the indoor short bowls mats, used regularly by visually impaired bowlers;
• An inclusive roundabout (Congleton): £7,685 from the council will contribute towards the installation of a wheelchair accessible, inclusive roundabout in Congleton Park;
• Cycle shelter (Knutsford): a pledge of £834 from the council will contribute towards a cycle shelter on Silk Mill Street, allowing easy access to Knutsford Town on foot;
• Table tennis for all (Nantwich): £9,586 from the council will contribute towards transforming 250 square metres of café space into a vibrant multi-table community facility.

Sally Potts, senior project manager for the ‘Wonderful Wetland’ project, said:

‘We are very grateful to Cheshire East Council for backing our ‘Wonderful Wetland’ project on The Carrs in Wilmslow. 

“The council’s pledge of almost £7,500 will make a world of difference to the progress of our project and will also make a huge difference to the wildlife, carbon storage and water quality on The Carrs. 

“Thanks to the fantastic support of Cheshire East, our project is almost 70 per cent of the way towards its funding goal, and we would not have achieved this were it not for the council recognising the importance of this project for nature and for people as well.”

To view the full list of exciting projects taking place in communities across Cheshire East and how you can help them to reach their targets, visit Spacehive’s web page to like, follow or make a pledge.