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Council pledges £16,000 towards community projects across Cheshire East

19 December 2022

Cheshire East Council has pledged more than £16,000 towards community projects across the borough following the latest round of crowdfunding.

A mental health art exhibit, a wheelchair coach for a miniature railway, support for stroke survivors and a four-day music and arts festival, are among seven community-led projects Cheshire East is supporting through Cheshire East Crowd.

The council pledged up to £6,000 towards each of the projects, which were put forward from community groups and individuals with bright ideas to improve their local area.

In the last few weeks, the projects have been drumming up support from local people and businesses to show the strength of community buy-in for their ideas.

The crowdfunding campaigns have been put forward as part of the council’s Cheshire East Crowd – a programme run in partnership with civic crowdfunding website Spacehive, which invites communities to come together and propose ideas to regenerate their local areas.

Councillor Mick Warren, chair of the environment and communities committee, said: “The Cheshire East Crowd is growing in strength and popularity, as people across the borough recognise it as a means to drive innovative ways to improve local communities. 

“We’re delighted to pledge our support to such a wide range of ideas that will help to strengthen local places across Cheshire East, supporting our vision of an open, fairer and greener borough. 

“I’m particularly pleased to see projects that support positive mental health and wellbeing during what continues to be a difficult time for many of our residents. 

“It would be wonderful to see people and businesses from across the borough getting behind these projects, helping them to reach their crowdfunding targets.”

The pledges announced today are part of a larger programme, which looks to invest up to £100,000 into projects across Cheshire East. 

Anyone from the borough has the opportunity to play their role in shaping Cheshire East’s future by proposing ideas, supporting campaigns and providing the skills and resources to help projects flourish. 

The projects include:

  • Woodland restoration at Daven Primary School (Congleton): £752 from the council will help to restore the area and create new woodland session equipment;
  • Mental health art exhibit (Sandbach): a pledge of £658 from the council will contribute towards a visual exhibit, with proceeds going to local mental health charities;
  • A wheelchair coach for a miniature railway (Nantwich): £778 from the council will help to raise funds needed to extend the service of the miniature railway to anyone in a wheelchair;
  • Footpath restoration (Sandbach): £1,286 from the council will contribute towards improving public access to the Sandbach wildlife corridor along the banks of Arclid Brook;
  • Supporting stroke survivors (Alsager and Crewe): a pledge of £1,244 from Cheshire East will contribute towards room hire and a speech therapist to help introduce stroke survivors back into the local community;
  • A music and arts festival (Audlem): a pledge of £5,644 from Cheshire East will help Audlem to continue to deliver its popular and diverse music and arts festival, and;
  • Supporting teenage anxiety (Crewe): a pledge of £5,920 will contribute towards an art and e-commerce programme aimed at improving the long-term prospects of young people struggling to attend school due to anxiety.

To view the full list of exciting projects taking place in communities across Cheshire East, and how you can help them to reach their targets, visit Spacehive’s web page to like, follow or make a pledge at: www.spacehive.com/movement/ce/projects