Lotto cash joy as Fylde gets£50,000 boost

Schemes ranging from a school farm to a community youth festival have secured funding from the Big Lottery Fund.

The grants are part of nearly £2m which is being shared across 112 groups in the North West.

Highfurlong Special School, Blackpool Old Road, is to get £10,000 towards creating a visiting farm and vegetable garden. The outdoor project will help pupils strengthen muscles and develop co-ordination.

Assistant headteacher Joanne Martin said: “We have been working with Countryside Classrooms and this grant will make so much more possible.

“We have already hatched some chicks and on February 1 we will create a farm experience for the day in our courtyard with a sheep, lambs, calves, ducks and chickens.

“Meanwhile we will have an ongoing vegetable garden which will also be part of our business enterprise scheme. For example we will plant salad produce for use in our coffee shop.”

Other Fylde projects receiving grants are Helping Hand (Furniture Restoration) Limited, of Cookson Street, Blackpool, which has been given £8,184 to update its record keeping and branding systems to increase awareness and help it recruit additional volunteers.

Fylde Coast Women’s Aid, which supports victims of domestic abuse across the Fylde, is receiving £9,981 to improve its IT and enable better information sharing between offices. The other Fylde projects set for funding are Home-Start Blackpool and Fylde which is receiving £10,000 for its Early Years Learning and Holiday Club.

The charity, which helps families improve parenting skills, will use the funding to offer a variety of family learning activity sessions.

Finally, Elswick Youth Community Festival has secured £10,000 to deliver evening youth and sports activities on a weekly basis. This will enable the group to boost opportunities offered to young people living in the surrounding rural areas.

Lyn Cole, Big Lottery Fund England grant-making director, said: “Whether it’s giving carers the chance to develop fantastic new skills, providing a safe haven for those experiencing trauma, or giving vital support to those suffering with life-changing injury, these projects will make a huge difference to the lives of many people.”

The awards have been made through the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All and Reaching Communities programmes.