Program at England’s Lincolnshire county
WREN now aims to tackle a new unique,
900,000 euro program being piloted at
Lincolnshire, an English county.
Called the FCC Building Communities
Programme, the new project is being
rolled out in the town of Gainsborough
where research has suggested that
communities most in need of funding
do not always apply for it. If it proves
successful, the programme could be ex-
tended to seven other areas around the
UK with a funding pot of 7 million euros
million.
The FCC Building Communities Pro-
gramme is now working in Gainsbo-
rough to find great ideas to improve the
town’s community life. Initial work by
Community Lincs has included surveys
at the Gainsborough Riverside Festival in
June where more than 100 people came
forward to say what they would like to
see developed in the town.
Simon Settle, Grant Team Manager for
WREN, said “This is a new way of wor-
king for WREN. Usually, communities
approach us with fully developed ideas,
but in Gainsborough we want to work
with the local people, who may only have
an idea in mind when they first come
and talk to us, and help them to develop
these ideas and turn them into amazing
projects. We have never set aside such
a large sum of money for one community
to tap into – it’s a really exciting oppor-
tunity”.
Mike Snell added: “this new and exciting
program represents a different approach
so that environmental organizations such
as WREN can satisfy the needs of those
who live in impoverished areas. It also
fits in very well with FCC Group’s com-
mitment to offer socially important ser-
vices such as infrastructure and waste
water management which truly improve
the lives of people”.
WREN funded the St. Barnabas Garden
in Macclesfield, England. The project involved
working with marginalised youth to create
a community garden with benches, fruit trees, a
vegetable patch, a natural garden
and a recreational area.
Radical change
This year, however, WREN radically chan-
ged its method for project funding alloca-
tion.
According to Mike, “WREN has had signi-
ficant success in attracting applications for
project finance and the richest communities
are very capable of identifying their needs
and of participating in the process of finding
the required funding”.
“Nevertheless, WREN’s recent research has
shown that the most deprived communities
do not necessarily have the expertise or
the necessary resources to take advanta-
ge of this funding from landfill tax proceeds,
despite being precisely those that have the
greatest need for better installations, for
examples, safe and pleasant community
centres.
