MORE than 200 local residents gathered at Dee Park to cast their votes on bids made by local groups for up to £20,000 worth of funding, as part of the Your Community Your Cash initiative.
The event, on Friday June 28 at Lyon Square, was a jointly funded by Reading Borough Council’s Decent Neighbourhood Fund and Catalyst Housing.
There were around 100 votes cast and the six winning bids included £5,000 for a community café, £3,400 for summer activities for children and £4,550 for a homework club.
Richard Davies, Reading’s Lead Councillor for Housing, said: “The event at Dee Park proved to be a tremendous success and is the latest Your Community Your Cash initiative. Local residents know better than anyone the requirements of their community and I’m pleased to see that the winning bids cater for a range of different activities and ages.”
Chair of Dee Park Residents’ Association, Clare Vose, said: “It all worked really well, I think everyone in Dee Park is happy.”
Sattie Mann of Pride of Dee Park said: “We have to thank all the children and adults for voting for the community café, run by the Pride of Dee Park. It will bring back the heart of the community. It was a roaring success and very positive to see the community helping the community. All the bids were worthy causes.”
And Tina Ford of Catalyst Housing added: “We were really happy to be involved – it was a great event. It was good to see how many people came to vote, particularly as this was the first year. We were also really pleased to see that the young people were involved and also had their chance to vote”.
A similar Your Community Your Cash event was held in Hexham Road on Saturday 15th June. The Mayor of Reading joined local tenants and residents at the Hexham Community Centre for an afternoon of celebrations and fun and an opportunity to vote on their favourite projects who had bid for up to £15,000 of Council funding, through the scheme.
The four winning projects included the Hexham Seniors Club, Health and Wellbeing Group, Holiday Activities and a Men’s Room project, which will aim to give local males and youths on the estate a social space.
The event also saw the opening of the newly refurbished Bamburgh Close play park by the Mayor, Cllr Marian Livingston. The new play equipment was funded through £50,000 of the Council’s Decent Neighbourhood Fund, a fund from Council tenant’s rent collection that is put towards projects to improve your estates either for environmental improvements or projects for the community.
The park refurbishment was carried out following door knocking and surveys between Christmas and New Year with residents, community centre users and children from the George Palmer Primary school who were all given the opportunity to vote on their favourite equipment.
