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West Kilbride Environment Group
2024-08-28 • No comments • • North Coast
We have established more sustainable planting and have introduced a range of perennial plants and shrubs in several areas throughout the village. We top up during summer with colourful annuals some which we grow ourselves. We also maintain over 50 hanging baskets which bring colour to the village during the summer months. All our gardens are highly visible in the village and several have seating areas for people to rest and enjoy the plants. One of our gardens has a sensory theme and a Happy to Chat Bench. We believe that the gardens connect people in the village and give a sense of community and pride in our local environment. We work in partnership with a range of other organisations, schools and community and environmental projects who benefit from the range of habitats that we have to offer.
We would be grateful if the PB could support us to bulk buy a selection of bulbs, perennials, plug plants and hanging basket plants to plant out newer gardens and top up our existing gardens. It would also enable a bulk purchase of compost and plant feed
Increasing Entertainment for Largs Yuletide Night
2024-09-18 • No comments • • North Coast
Largs Events’ objective is to bring events to the town that will bring pleasure for the residents and their families, whilst also increasing footfall to a popular “seaside town” which following the pandemic and consequential “Cost of Living” crisis, has seen a changing and declining landscape of choice and facilities. Increasing awareness of the available choices is key to creating a friendly and enjoyable experience to residents and visitors alike. We have managed to increase our events by use of a local partnership to facilitate markets with specific “topics” and these have proved popular. One of our foundation Events is the annual “Yuletide Night” which has always been popular, and we would like to carry this on. Last year the night cost Largs Events £3,422.00 as we continued our long-term objective of “Social Inclusiveness” and everything “Free”, and indeed all our events are wherever possible free, and across all genders and ages. As a committee we decided to refrain from approaching the troubled businesses last year because of the financial situation and will try to do that until a more appropriate time. This year we have been advised by NAC that the erection\dismantling of the Lights will need to be paid for and we are actively pursuing funding for this in order to ensure Yuletide actually happens. We have already obtained funding to buy new lights as the existing one are failing and beyond their best and hope to have this in place for this year.
Our Yuletide night is a night for all the family and we would like to ensure there is something there for all family members and here is where we are asking for help. We usually try to have an area for live entertainment ranging from choirs to some local entertainers, this we have in the past been unable to make best use of due to lack of funds and would like to ask for a sum of £1000 to hire the stage area, to accommodate the local singers, but to make better use of, we can get hire some more “established” musicians to come to Largs and people can enjoy them, again foc. Any spare funds could also be used to add extra entertainment to the event, but without current costings we cannot say at this stage.
Our normal Fundraising activities will continue with the hope of building on the last couple of years successful events, whilst maintaining our desire to make Largs a town we can all be very proud of.
Clyde Coast & Cumbraes Mens Shed Growth
2024-09-05 • No comments • • North Coast
The Clyde Coast & Cumbraes Mens Shed is becoming more and more integrated into the community everytime we open our doors, we are being asked to make or repair more and more varied items by the public, Local charitable causes & local businesses, which gives the membership a great sense of achievement and a feeling belonging to the community, which improves their mental health and wellbeing.
We held evening sessions with the Scottish Womens Institute & the Largs Boys Brigade on seperate nights, which were greatly received and has lead to us organing evening session with both groups which will help to teach them new skills and hopefully develop into something that can use in the future.
The breakdown of costs for the funding is as follows.
- For 2 Erbauer Impact Drivers £199.98
- For 1 Erbauer Impact Wrench £69.99
- For 2 Trade screw Packs £139.98
- For 10M of 220mmx 20 Planed Pine £248.88 at current prices
- For 50M of 150 x 19 Rough sawn Fence palanks £220.40 at current prices
- For 20M of 47x50mm Rough sawn timber £101.00 at current prices
Barrfield Community Garden in Largs
2024-09-09 • No comments • • North Coast
Barrfield Community Garden is a new space located in Largs. Though only created in the winter of 2023, already volunteers have brought in raised beds, planted a large varity of vegetables, fruits, and flowers, and harvested vegetables which were donated to the Largs Food Bank. We have served as a site for local small projects as well as a well-being space allowing local people with varying levels of ability to work with plants. We hope to expand this site in the coming years to grow more food and create a space for local people of all ages and ability to engage with, as well as of course continue to grow tasty food and beautiful flowers to share with Largs and those who presently do not have access to healthy, locally-grown food.
At present, the site has water but no electricity. We'd love to keep a few plants growing well into the autumn and need to procure solar-powered grow lights to do so. This involves the purchase of two sets of grow lights with attached solar panels to keep our melon, pepper, lettuce and tomato harvests going into the late autumn.
Our water pipes are at present not protected from the colder temperatures that come with Scottish winter. We are seeking to insulate the water pipes and employ a local plumber to install this insulation.
In the interest of increasing the environmental sustainability of the Barrfield Community Garden space, we would like to install drain pipes and water butts. This will allow the garden to collect and utilise rainwater for watering the garden's beds and indoor plants.
People in Largs may be aware we recently experienced vandalism to the garden. After this event, we would like to install a motion-activated camera, as well as solar- powered, motion-activated lights for the main path into the garden.
Adequate amounts of compost will be needed for planting over the winter, including but not limited to the growing of garlic and seed potatoes.
We would in future hope to create a tiered garden on the hilly portion at the east side of the garden. The area is at present covered with thistles and weeds, so we would to cover this area with weed-killing membrane as the first step of this project.
10 Meter weed membrane roll (x10) @ £6.95 = £69.50
10w led Solar grow light (x2) @ 68.50 = £137.00
Motion sensor lights for pathway lighting (x6) @ £6.99 = £41.94
SolarCam Kit with night vision and SDCard = £85
Builders bag Compost = £52
Insulation for water pipes, materials and labor = £200
Water butts and guttering for rainwater collection = £400
Largs Music Club
2024-08-30 • No comments • • North Coast
I moved to Largs late 2022 and created Largs Music Club soon after in response to the interest I received since floating the idea on social media.
LMC offers an informal setting for amateur musicians to meet on a regular basis and encourage and teach one another to improve their skill-level on their preferred musical instrument.
The club is growing in popularity since word is out that we existing members offer a friendly and relaxed environment for those keen to learn at their own pace without fear of judgement or impatience. As membership is growing, so does the variety of instruments being learned and taught.
The club relies on individuals contributing their time and equipment to teach fellow members how to play their preferred instrument. With continued funding, I would aim to purchase more equipment to make that teaching more accessible - music stands, microphones, microphone stands, amplifiers, mixing desk and some basic entry level instruments to encourage those who do not own an instrument (but who wish to learn one), to join us. The funding would also contribute to the maintenance (and if necessary, repair) of the equipment purchased in our first year. These items are expensive and realistically will require additional funding from me and some other willing members to supplement any money issued following this application. However, I am confident that your contribution will assist LMC continue to grow in membership and reputation and continue playing music for the community.
Our club assists develop confidence as well as musical literacy, with participants encouraged to play live for friends and family and now, for larger audiences in the community shows as per my vision.
Feedback from participants so far evidence the mental health benefits of playing and learning in our community, a benefit I will highlight as I further promote our initiative in the community.
Members talk about how the club combats loneliness and depression. I hope to continue making this club available for some time to come.
The reason I don’t include a specific breakdown of cost is because our costs are really unpredictable. The idea of the club is that anyone can turn up and learn to play any instrument. So last year we bought, among many other things, a mandolin, a banjo and a saxophone. The demand is driven by who walks through the door and what they want to learn.
We also spend money on instrument maintenance – new strings and replacement parts. Again, we respond to what our members need – replacing guitar strings once they break, for example.
We spent more than £1000 last year (all receipts available) and expect we’ll do the same again next year. That said, I expect you’ll have more applications this year, so we will be very delighted to receive any amount of award.
We at LMC are extremely grateful for your consideration.
Opening events for 'The Space' Community Hub and Community Trust launch
2024-09-17 • No comments • • North Coast
What The Trust is about
Largs Community Development Trust (Largs CDT) has secured premises in Boyd Street, Largs to use as a base for the organisation's work, to be called 'The Space'. Part of that work will be working alongside other organisations, such as offering access to benefit advice services and a credit union.
Largs CDT is a local organisation set up and run by local volunteers. We aim to work for the benefit of the community in Largs by addressing a range of economic, social, environmental and cultural issues.
The launch will have several aims:
This application is to help launch our activities and raise awareness of the new facility, and help us sign up the community of Largs as 'Friends', improve awareness and recognition of the Trust and the work we do.
We want the launch to:
- Create momentum and encourage people to join as Friends
- Help us create a register of volunteer's skills within in the community
- Capture the ideas and opinions of Largs people
- Commmunicate the Trust's aims and objectives using eg, leaflets, posters, banners, signboards, events
- "The Trust is for people like me" — speak to the community across all ages and experiences of life
- Gather feedback and create interest in current and future projects
We plan to have a number of days where we distribute leaflets and goodies promoting the Trust on and around Largs Main Street, and at The Space community hub. The objective is to encourage the people of Largs to engage with the Trust, see The Space as a place and the Trust as an organisation that supports them, their aspirations and the well-being of the community.
Proposed marketing materials we are seeking funding for:
- 10x XL t-shirts, pinted front and back £210
- 2x 2.5m feather flags £240
- 300x window cling vinyls £150
- 1,000x A4 DL (99x210mm) Friends joining forms £145
- 1,000x A4 DL (99x210mm) flyers about Largs CDT and its aims/objectives £145
- Posters, social media boosting and targetting £100
We have obtained the help of professional designers to help us with communications, design and a website which will go live with the events. We also anticipate creating other communications eg, press releases, photoshoots, digital media to publicise the event.
Largs CDT is registered as a Scottish charity (SCIO SC053580)
WKAFC SFA Accreditation
2024-09-11 • No comments • • North Coast
We at WKAFC are looking for £1000 for professional fees to assist us in applying for SFA Accreditation. This will in turn allow us to apply for funding from them to facilitate the improvement of facilities and provide a multi use pitch
Social Horticulture for Experts & Dummies (SHED)
2024-09-20 • 1 comment • • North Coast
We also support people in the community with their food growing by supplying seeds, containers, compost, fertiliser and friendly help and advice. Every year we need to keep our supplies up of compost, fertiliser, seeds, plants, tools as we expand our work. We have been developing our garden by building terraces and new growing areas and this year will be another busy time as we move onto a new area of the garden to develop. By voting for our project you will support us in expanding our food-growing space and garden infrastructure. Our garden was previously an overgrown derelict space and our volunteers have done a tremendous job so far in making it a productive and joyful space.
We also require a new colour printer so that we can print our signage, save money on leaflets and posters, growing instructions for people we are working with and to draw more people into our projects. As we are keen environmentalists we want to switch to an eco printer.
Printer and supply of ink and paper £300
Gardening supplies £700
Thank you for your support and please come and join us Mondays and Wednesdays 9:30-1:30
Improving our children and staff's wellbeing outdoors
2024-09-12 • No comments • • North Coast
We spend a significant amount of the nursery day in our outdoor garden and forest area. We are focussed on giving our children the best experience at our nursery and so the skill sets the children develop outside and the opportunities for different ways to play here are a large part of their learning at WKEYC. Being able to use our outdoor space so well, builds the children's confidence and resilience to playing outside in all weathers. In order to provide this we always consider both the children and staff's well being and how best to cater for their comfort.
Therefore we are asking for some smaller items that will make a big difference to their time in the garden. We are hoping for mobile hand wash stations for warm handwashing outside which is key to children's health and wellbeing; tarpaulins for shelter and ground cover with a tougher tarpolin required as this needs to be robust enough in the stormier weather; facilities for hot drinks for staff and children to allow them to cintinue for longer outside and feel happier doing so; hand and feet warmers for staff (children are catered for already) and portable seating for staff to take five minutes whilst out in the garden - the children have these facilities in their log chairs.
Although small these items will have a direct impact on everyone's mental and physical health. Staff will feel valued and appreciated in their workplace as we try our best to keep them warm and dry and everyone will benefit from being outdoors, learning in a different environment. This is proven to aid in their overall health and promote other ways to learn. In some cases, this will also provide an element of play they may not receive at home promoting equal opportunites for our children.
Below are the items we would love to be able to provide for our children and staff.
Insulated Mobile Hand wash station x 3 (£204) = £612
Tarpaulin (3m x 4m) for groundsheet = £11.99
Tarpaulin (waterproof and storm proof) for shelter = £75.36
Travel Chairs x 4 (£10) = £40
Hot drink dispenser x 3 (£24.99) = £74.97
Travel mugs for staff x 8 (£9.88) = £79.04
Warm insoles for wellies ( £5.98 for 2 pairs) = £23.92
Hand warmers (40 pk) = £26.49
Total £943.77
There is a document attached with the links to the products we are looking at. As these are live links prices may have varied (especially on Amazon) from when we have looked at these - we will endeavour to purchase as close to these prices as possible.
Cycling Without Age Scotland: Largs - funding for operation of booking system
2024-09-10 • No comments • • North Coast
Description: Our CWAS Chapter in Largs provides outings of between 20 and 90 minutes along the Promenade for residents in care homes, and individuals at home, giving them spells of fresh air and conversation, plus seeing life along the shore. The visual stimulation and conversations along the way are hugely beneficial to their physical and emotional wellbeing.
The outings (jaunts) take place on our ‘trishaw’ (see photo) which is powered by one of our volunteer pilots (assisted by a battery) and carries a deserving passenger plus a carer or relative. We are also happy to take out disabled people of all ages, special schools and children’s and adults’ hospices.
Benefits to Volunteers: The volunteers, once trained and qualified, get a chance to be part of something that makes a real difference to the lives of those in their community. They form friendships and, from the stories they hear on the rides, learn more about their locale. Plus they develop important social skills and their own health will benefit from the exercise and fresh air. All our volunteers find it a hugely rewarding activity.
Benefits to Passengers: Our service helps address loneliness and isolation for the elderly and those of all ages less mobile in the local community but it can also be a lifeline to able-bodied people who may have experienced mental health challenges. This unique befriending service is often the highlight of a passenger’s week and something they look forward to.
With an unrestricted view and interested, lively company, fresh air, a slow pace and the chance to interact with passersby (old friends and new), the rides are a highly stimulating experience for many who spend much of their time indoors and on their own. The CWAS Trishaws provide a sustainable form of recreation providing access to the fantastic scenery to those who would otherwise be unable to enjoy those routes. In addition, the opportunity for rides will allow community events to be more inclusive and accessible.
Seeing other people and places stimulates both the mind and the body and leaves the person feeling happy and even those who have memory impairment are left with feelings of elation.
Breakdown of Costs: We are seeking funding to cover the cost of operating our booking system for the next two years. This is made up of:
- Mobile Phone pay-as-you go costs of £10 per month for 24 months => £240
- Online TeamUp Calendar at £9 per month => £216