East Herts District Council Community Grants

East Herts District Council are offering Community Activity Grants of up to £500. This money is intended to help with new or replacement equipment, day to day running costs or one of costs for community events which benefit the people of East Hertfordshire. Parish Councils, community/voluntary groups, clubs and parish councils are all invited to apply. The deadline for applications is this Monday 2 March. For more details about how to apply please click here.

I appreciate the deadline for applications for these grants is quite soon but I strongly encourage constituents to apply for them if they can so that they can enjoy some benefit from any grants within the community.

Feelin’ Good Week means awards of up to £500 for groups in Hertfordshire…

Following the Secretary of State for Education’s speech yesterday about the money being provided by the Government to help families with mental health support, I was pleased to read that as part of “Feelin’ Good Week” which has run this week, £20,000 has also been awarded to community groups and schools in Hertfordshire by Hertfordshire County Council and the county’s two NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups.

Feelin’ Good Week is a Hertfordshire wide event which has been set up to improve the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people in the county through community events and activities. In Hertfordshire as many as 47 organisations have been given awards of up to £500 each. Within the constituency these include Icknield Walk First School, Stonehill School, Greenaway School and local authority groups and charities such as the East and North Herts NHS Trust, The Education Support Team for Medical Absence, Aspects, PHASE, the Pre-School Leaning Alliance and Step2.

I am a keen supporter of such schemes that help those with mental health needs and am glad that both on a national and local scale help is being provided to help children who need it.

Nominations are open for the Campaign to protect Rural England’s Hertfordshire Rural Living Awards

I was pleased to hear that nominations have opened for the Campaign to protect Rural England’s Hertfordshire Rural Living Awards. These are intended to recognise the efforts made by groups or individuals who have improved life and bettered the environment in Hertfordshire’s villages and countryside. The two categories for these are as below:

• Rural Community Living
• Rural Environment

There are also two Rural Living Champion Awards and these are:

• The Dorothy Abel Smith Award for a young person aged up to 18 who has made an outstanding contribution to rural living
• The Peterkin Award for an adult who has made an outstanding contribution to rural living

Details about how to nominate people and the necessary forms to do so can be found here. I am a strong supporter of the rural community in my constituency. There are many that make a valuable contribution to it and I hope that people will consider nominating them so that their hard work is suitably recognised.