Councillor Community Budget Available

Readers of this blog will know that last year I had a budget of £10,000 to spend on voluntary and community projects in Grove and Wantage. Many local organisations benefitted from this including the Independent Advice Centre, Grove Challengers, Grovelands Playgroup, Sweatbox, Wantage Air Training Corps, The Vale and Downland Museum, Wilts and Berks Canal Sackhouse project, Friends of Grove Library toddler computer, South and Vale young carers and the Wantage Betjeman Literary Festival.

I now have another £10,000 to allocate this year and I would like to take this opportunity of raising this possibility again.  So far, I have given a small grant to the Oasis project which ran a fun day for local autistic children at the Sweatbox in July. The photo above shows the displays on offer for the 'Bright Sparks' hands-on science part of the afternoon, where I went along to see the event in progress. It was a great success and I would like to ensure that any organisation working locally to support our community is aware that funding is available to help make things happen. 

To apply, you can do so online at this link  http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/councillor-community-budgets or otherwise you can contact me at zoe.patrick@oxfordshire.gov.uk to find out more.

WaGCG Garden Party at Ardington House

This afternoon, I attended the excellent Garden Party arranged by the Wantage and Grove Campaign Group (WaGCG) in the beautiful grounds of Ardington House. This was a fund raising event and in the marquee by the lake we were treated to tea, cakes, a raffle and entertainment by Catherine Bulpitt, Flower of the Quern, Shotgun Weather Ferret and Laura Manning & David Lyons. Congratulations to Julie Mabberley and the whole team for the organisation of this fantastic event.

Back to Business - Grove Footpath Repairs

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I have just returned from holiday and have been trying to catch up - not helped by my broadband not working both before and after I was away!  Apologies for being unable to post to this blog for those of you looking for updates.

I was at Grove Library yesterday afternoon to do the storytime session and noticed that the diagonal footpath by the Old Mill Hall (above) is being repaired at long last.  I was able to secure £5000 funding from my Area Stewardship budget towards this well-used path to ensure that it was brought up to a good standard, having received many complaints from residents about the poor state it was in.  The path is the responsibility of Grove Parish Council, so they were able to go ahead and get a contractor in to do the work.  I was pleased to see them on site yesterday starting the repairs.  I look forward to seeing it completed, hopefully before the end of the school holidays.