Parklife Community Fund opens for local applicants and causes

Community groups wishing to run a project within parks/green spaces near to or in Heaton Park are invited to apply for a grant from the Parklife 2017 Community Fund.

The Fund - run by the festival in cooperation with Manchester and Bury councils - is the result of the festival’s approach to partnership working with the two local authorities and makes more than £44,000 available this year for the benefit of community groups. Priority will be given to groups and projects that utilise parks and open spaces, although all are encouraged to apply with any ideas or requests, to help improve the area they share.  

Raised from contributions made at the festival by guest-list attendees, the fund in part supports the officially championed charity ‘SuperJosh’ for brain tumour sufferers and families, which received an impressive £26,000. An additional £5,000 was raised through festival tickets being donated to various charities for raffles and auctions – taking the total amount raised for charitable causes from Parklife 2017 to more than £75,000.

The Parklife Community Fund provides a portion of Manchester City Council's Neighbourhood Investment Fund and also enables Bury Council to budget for its own annual scheme.

The Manchester fund covers Higher Blackley and Crumpsall and applications should be made by the end of January 2018.

The Bury fund covers Sedgley, Holyrood and St Mary’s, as part of the council’s participatory budget, with individual award limits of £1,500 and a deadline of 4pm on 14 January 2018; applications will go to a Prestwich councillor panel in the first round and a public vote for the second round, which is scheduled to take place 6pm on 28 February.

Prestwich councillor Alan Quinn, Bury Council’s cabinet member for the environment, said: “The Parklife concerts have proved very successful and attracted visitors from across the city region and beyond. It’s important, though, that local people and businesses in Prestwich benefit too from having these concerts on their doorstep.

“The Parklife 2017 Community Fund has been set up to reduce the impact of the event by working with local residents and community groups. This year the fund stands at £22,000, which is a great sum and gives groups and charities the opportunity to bid for money that could make a real difference.

“The amount available for each community project has now risen to £1,500, and I urge as many groups as possible to apply for this funding by 14 January. The awards will be given away in two rounds to make sure everybody has a chance to bid.”

Manchester City Council's executive member for schools, culture and leisure, Councillor Luthfur Rahman, said: "From listening to residents, we know it's vital to ensure that the hosting of major events results in benefits for our parks and green spaces - and through the Parklife Community Fund, Parklife can also help the many community groups who are active close to Heaton Park.

"I'd urge any groups with a vision for a project which would benefit Higher Blackley or Crumpsall to apply for a grant from the Fund, so that we can help empower them to enhance their local area."

This is the second year the Parklife Community Fund has made financial contributions to local groups. Previous awards from the 2016 Parklife Community Fund have gone to Prestwich Community Picnic, Prestwich Clough Day, The Phoenix Centre, Young Carers in Prestwich, Philips Park Nursery Garden, Getting Together, Outdoor Classroom – Garden Redevelopment, Friends of Blackley Cemetery, Friends of Blackley Forest and Blackley in Bloom.

A spokesperson from Prestwich Clough day said: “We were delighted to receive the Parklife grant as it not only enabled us to provide a Marquee to ensure the event could proceed, but also the fact that the public voted for us showed that our event is a much treasured and beloved part of our Community. It meant we were able to then look at providing a full and entertaining programme of activities with hopefully something for everyone.”

For details of how Bury groups can apply for the funding, go to https://www.theburydirectory.co.uk/kb5/bury/directory/service.page?id=oHMyP9DfmTA

ENDS

Press release issued: 12 December 2017.