Community projects awarded Platinum Jubilee grants

The Platinum Jubilee Capital Grants fund of £700,000 was set up earlier in the year by the Council to support new significant capital assets across the district as a lasting commemoration of the Platinum Jubilee. To be successful, applications had to meet a number of criteria, including: supporting at least one of the Council’s corporate priorities; being a new project; demonstrating public benefit and being freely available to the local community.

Some of the groups that have been awarded the grant will contribute funds of their own to cover the total costs of their project.

The Council agreed, on Tuesday 8 November 2022, to allocate funding to the following nine projects in the district:

• Great Glen Parish Council - £70,000 for inclusive play and gym equipment to enhance outside spaces and support physical activity and mental health benefits for young people and adults

• Claybrooke Magna Parish Council - £70,000 to create a Jubilee footpath walk. The project will join a verge used by residents to an existing footpath with a pedestrian footbridge which will provide a safe, additional walking route for generations to come and will improve the natural character of the area whilst providing physical and mental health benefits

• South Kilworth Parish Council – £70,000 to build a Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA within the boundaries of the village playing fields

• Lutterworth Church - £70,000 to renovate the community centre to make it fully accessible and inclusive. This will involve a space for vital existing projects such as the foodbank and other core community groups, including those that support vulnerable members of the community

• Lutterworth Town Council - £70,000 to install new equipment in the play area on Coventry Road, to include creative role play, sensory and accessible equipment. The area will be renamed Platinum Jubilee play area

• Ashby Parva Village Hall - £70,000 for a multi-functional garden themed on seven main areas (one for each decade of HM The Queen’s reign)

• All Saints Church, Gilmorton - £70,000 for a new inner porch with glass etched commemorative doors and an internal community area

• Houghton Field Association (HFA) - £70,000 to create a legacy for the community by laying a Queen’s Jubilee footpath around the perimeter of the field

• Kibworth Beauchamp Parish Council - £70,000 to create a Jubilee Walk with a Queen’s canopy, with 25 different species of trees, in Smeeton Road Park, which will join up with other paths to enable easier access for pedestrians, wheelchair users, pram and pushchair users

Councillor Simon Whelband, Harborough District Council’s Cabinet lead for wellbeing and communities, said: “These new capital projects, funded by the Council’s Platinum Jubilee Capital Grants fund, are a wonderful way to mark HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, whilst creating a long-lasting legacy in the Harborough district. These innovative projects, which have been suggested and developed by community groups, will bring many social, health-related and environmental benefits to local residents, and it’s fantastic to think that future generations will also benefit in years to come.”

The Council is currently considering how the remaining £70,000 from the grant fund will be spent.