The Trust Puts An Extra £50,000 Into Grant Aid To Benefit The Local Community

Greenham Common Trust is giving an extra £50,000 to help local charities struggling to secure funding in a difficult economic climate.

The extra cash windfall will mean local organisations and communities will benefit from over £300,000 of reactive Trust grant aid this year. The Trust announced the extra money during its spring reactive grant round which has seen local community organisations in West Berkshire benefit from £125,000.

A major grant recipient was St George's Church in Wash Common which was awarded £30,000 from the Trust and £12,500 from West Berkshire Partnership to help make the church the first in the country to run entirely on renewable energy.

The present heating system is totally unreliable and inadequate for meetings and events and the grant will help lever the additional funding required to finish the £900,000 project making it a fantastic community venue. Heating will be provided from eight 100m boreholes which will feed a ground source heat pump and electricity will be supplied from an array of solar panels. This will provide sufficient electricity for all of the church's and have a surplus for export to the National Grid.

The Trust also gave £14,000 to West Berkshire Citizens Advice Bureau in the last grant round to enable it to continue its rural outreach programme for vulnerable people. As well as funding important major projects in the district, the Trust also helps smaller organisations such as Ecchinswell Home School Association, which took all 75 pupils from the local primary school to attend a behind-the-scenes trip to the pantomime and workshop thanks to the Trust.

Local church members have raised a staggering £115,000 and St George's has also secured grants from the Low Carbon Building Programme, Colefax Charitable Trust and Englefield Charitable Trust. St George's Project Fundraising Manager Tom Linley said "We are very grateful for the tremendous support from the local community. If it wasn't for Greenham Common Trust this we would not have been able to generate the extra funding we need to complete the project. This is an exemplar project that will not only provide a fantastic community space but a great educational facility making St George's the first carbon neutral church in the country running entirely on renewable energy."

The Trust supports a diverse range of clubs, societies and organisations in West Berkshire and North Hampshire as possible and has awarded nearly £10,000 to local Guides, Scouts and Brownie groups.

Local sports clubs received over £8,000 and over £37,500 was awarded to improve health and well being in the area, including West Berkshire Partnership support for Feelgood Fortnight and employing a full-time co-ordinator at Parkwood Leisure for exercise referral schemes.

St Mary's Church in Speen also received £10,000 to build a kitchen in the church hall so it can expand functions for the local community and complete its refurbishment plans.

Vice chairman of the Parochial Church Council Michael Bell said the church, which is the oldest in the Newbury, was split in half to provide a community hall for functions."It is an amazing space but it had no kitchen facilities. The Trust's grant and the £20,000 already raised will enable us to attract community groups and hopefully receptions for baptisms and may be even weddings," he added.

Nearly £21,000 was awarded to disability charities including West Berkshire Mencap to partly fund its 2010 summer play scheme and Vitalise who provide care breaks for people with disabilities.

Arts organisations in the district received nearly £23,000. With funding sources drying up for arts organisations like Time Spanner (Projects), which supports musicians artists and writers with disabilities and learning difficulties, grant aid is a lifeline.

"The awards from the Greenham Common Trust could not have come at a more critical time for Time Spanners. We were on the verge of closing," said Time Spanner (Projects) founder member Mark Turauskis. "The last eighteen months has been a difficult financial time for Time Spanner with many of our traditional sources of funding either drying up or coming under increased pressure as a greater number of organisations chase increasingly shrinking funding. But thanks to the grants from the Trust and funding from Newbury Round Table we are now able to progress with our tenth anniversary projects."

Counselling, advocacy and support organisations were awarded nearly £23,500 with West Berkshire Citizens Advice Bureau, Relate and Newbury branch of the Samaritans all receiving grants.

Greenham Common Trust chief executive Stuart Tagg said: "We recognise that funding is becoming increasingly difficult to secure in these uncertain economic times. We aim to continue to support as many different local charities and organisations as possible."

For a full list of grant recipients in the spring reactive grant round click here.

For more information and to get an application form visit the grant awards page or call or email Melissa Elliott on 01635 817445 or melissa@greenham-common-trust.co.uk. The deadline for applications for the spring round is February 5.