COUNTY COUNCIL - EXEC MEMBER, REC & HER - 16 MAY, 2002

GRANTS IN THE RECREATION AND HERITAGE FIELD

1. Grants have recently been awarded for the period up until March 2002 covering arts development, voluntary bodies and other organisations involved in sport and physical recreation, and community associations in respect of revenue spending. The budget allocation for community support has also been approved.

2. As regards the arts development grants, a wide range of projects has been supported covering visual arts, crafts, literature and lens based media. The County Council continues to run the Two for One Awards Scheme, a very successful initiative that fosters a positive relationship between business and the arts and which involves matching new sponsorships valued between £200 and £500 and thereby provides a useful incentive to arts organisations to find more sponsors. Grants totalling nearly £15,000 have been offered in respect of 28 different projects and festivals including classical concerts in various towns in the county, events to support the activities of artists and crafts people in Petersfield, North Hampshire and venues in the Test Valley, drama workshops in Yateley and the Winchester Film Society.

3. In the field of sport and physical recreation, grants have been awarded to organisations covering a wide variety of activities such as disability sport, badminton, gymnastics and swimming.

4. In the case of community support a budget of £444,000 has been allocated to 7 different headings including training grants, programme repair and maintenance of county owned properties, seconded staff and annual revenue support. As regards the latter, grants have been offered to 16 organisations as part of the partnership between the County Council and community associations who seek to enable local people to meet the recreational, educational, social, cultural and environmental needs of their local communities. These organisations give local people an opportunity to participate in local activities and encourage local initiatives by people of all ages.

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