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25
Oct
Successful applicants to £9,000 Starbeck Community Fund revealed
Recipients of the 2024 Starbeck Community Fund have been revealed today (October 24).
The fund was agreed in 1992 as part of the planning and development requirements when the Morrisons supermarket was redeveloped.
A legal agreement stated that the developers had to pay £300,000 to the council for the creation or improvement of recreation/community facilities in Starbeck.
North Yorkshire Council uses the interest on this to award annual small grants to community groups or individuals.
Applications for the 2024 fund closed in July and the full list of recipients was announced this week.
This year there were two funds available: grants for individuals or grants for community groups.
Grants for individuals of up to £200 were available for applicants aged 25 years or under based in the Starbeck area.
Applications were considered towards projects, schemes or courses that would enhance the educational, sporting or cultural advancement of an individual.
Grants of up to £1,000 were awarded to community groups for initiatives that enhance the quality of life of Starbeck residents, add value to the local community and allow more residents and volunteers to become involved in community projects.
Ten grants for community groups were awarded a total value of £9,106 while the individual grants totalled £400.
The community grant recipients are as follows:
- Harrogate Neighbours: awarded £931 for 2 desktop computers to give free access to the internet to customers at the community hub.
- Starbeck Christmas Lights: awarded £1,000 to buy new Christmas lights and replace old ones with LED lights.
- St Andrew's Church: awarded £1,000 to improve exterior lighting and install security cameras.
- Starbeck Methodist Church: awarded £1,000 for 3 hand dryers
- 23rd Harrogate Scouts: awarded £750 for outdoor cooking equipment.
- Friends of Starbeck School: awarded £1,000 to replace shaded seated area in children’s playground
- In Futures Time Together: awarded £395 for marketing and activities for job club to assist young people with additional needs and disabilities.
- Henshaws: awarded £1,000 for new iPads.
- Wellspring Therapy & Training: awarded £930 for weather compensation sensors for the boiler as well as thermostats for remote and local control.
- NY Connecting Spaces: awarded £700 to clean and renovate boxing building at boxing club.
Left: Members of the 23rd Harrogate Scout Group cooking and (right) Harrogate Neighbours’ hub manager Victoria Smith-Dunn, centre, with residents who use the facility
The 23rd Harrogate Scout Group’s leader, Sharon Gladish, said:
The 23rd Harrogate is a thriving group, and currently has up to 80 young people across the sections, drawn from the local area.
But as a voluntary organisation, our income is raised through member subscriptions and contributions towards specific events and activities such as camps. We aim to cover our running costs, so there is limited money available for investing in equipment.
As costs rise, we try to minimise the impact on our families, so grants from the Starbeck Community Fund really help us to maintain our camping and outdoor activity equipment, and ensure we have enough equipment for the growing number of young people we have in our group.
Harrogate Neighbours Business development manager Jamie Nicholson-Ruther said:
The world is moving online and with everything becoming digital those without access are struggling. This is an issue for elderly residents, leading to feelings of frustration, anxiety and isolation.
We opened our new community hub in Starbeck knowing the ability to aid people to access the internet would be one of our most useful roles here. It is crucial to have regular, easy access to the internet and these computers can provide that for hundreds of residents, free of charge.
New goal for ex-footballer
One of the £200 individual grants has enabled a local teenager to focus on a new challenge.
Liam Pinchen, 18, whose dream of becoming a footballer was cut short by illness has received funding to enable him to achieve a new goal.
The promising goalkeeper was a member of Harrogate Town’s academy. However, aged 13, he became seriously ill and was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition, HSP.
As a result, he suffered with chronic fatigue and was forced to give up the game he loved.
Now, he has found a new passion in photography and has received £200 to help towards designing a website he can use to display his photos taken of nature in his local area.
Liam said:
At the time I think we were quite worried as none of us had heard of HSP. As we found out more it seemed as though it could be quite a severe illness.
It meant I had to stop everything I was doing which was very difficult for me. I went from playing football almost every day to hardly being able to do a five-minute walk.
I started taking photos on my phone and sending them to my grandpa. He's into photography but isn't able to get out into nature as much anymore. But often the things I was photographing, like deer, were too far away so I was really grateful when my grandparents gifted me a camera.
My hopes are to keep improving my picture taking skills and then eventually pursue a career in photography. I want to focus on wildlife and nature, but I do like challenging myself to take a good photo of anything,
A photo of a barn owl in flight taken by Liam Pinchen.
North Yorkshire Council’s Liberal Democrat councillor for High Harrogate and Kingsley, Cllr Chris Aldred, who sits on the awards panel said:
It is great to see so many worthy causes benefiting from this grant assistance. Starbeck is a fantastic area in which to live and work and there are a great many organisations and individuals, for whom this scheme will make a significant difference.
I would like to give special mention to Liam, who is a great example of how perseverance can overcome adversity and I would like to wish him all the best for the future.
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