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.

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

Our proposed project will support the more vulnerable people in the community during the winter months, those  at risk of increased social isolation, loneliness and depression.  

Largs has a higher percentage of elderly and a higher percentage of people less mobile.   Giving them that life line in winter to connect with people encourages them out of the house to be part of daily life in the community.  The social interaction promotes a sense of belonging and safety for those more vulnerable in the winter months.

This will also showcase local establishments who support poor mobility by easy access, encouraging others to spread the word of local residents involved in community life.  We believe that poor mobility should not mean poor involvement.

We propose to meet fortnightly during 6 months of winter.  12  events for an estimated 10 residents  at each.  £8 towards each lunch is £80 x 12 = £960.