We had a plan that the community wanted to see be developed and now we had to get the money to realise it. The Countryside Agency's Doorstep Green scheme that gave us the initial grant for the feasibility study offered the carrot of extra money if we produced a detailed project plan(see below to download) and made a legal Framework Agreement with our partners, the Wolverton & Greenleys Town Council that clearly spelt the respective responsibilities of the council and us as the voluntary group.
All
of this paperwork was a bit intimidating but it was made easier by the
support we had from our local Doorstep Greens Advisor. In fact
this preparatory work paid off in the longer term. It showed and
reassured funders that we had a well thought out, properly costed
proposal with a proper legal management agreement in place.
We secured £50,000 from Doorstep Greens, £20,000 from the local Shanks First (Landfill Tax) Fund (with the Town Council granting us £2,150 to release the grant), £70,000 from Living Spaces, £9,624 from BTCV's People's Places, £2000 from the Co-op Dividend Fund, £23,938 from the Local Heritage Initiative and £7340 from Milton Keynes Community Foundation - a total of £185,052.
This funding has meant that we have able to do all hard works to a very high standard, plant potted rather than rooted shrubs, involve people of all ages in historical research and in creating art work for the site and finally we have been able to fund new things as the project has evolved.
For technical support please visit the online
support site www.help.ik.com
