We’re planning to pave round 4 raised beds in Cumbrae Community Garden to make access easier for people with restricted mobility, such as wheelchair/mobility scooter users or those needing walking aids. The Community Garden has a positive impact on health and well-being, not only for plot-holders but for the wider community who can access the peaceful outdoor environment of the Garden and take part in organised social events. This project will encourage more participation and improve community cohesion by improving access for people with a range of mobility needs and will help us promote community growing within a more vulnerable group.

The project costs exceed the PB grant limit but we have funding in place from the National Lottery which will meet the balance.

Costs:

Slabs £1300

Additional materials, delivery costs, labour: £1500

Total project cost £2800

Funding already in place: £1800

Funding requested from PB: £1000

The group sees an average of 15-17 bereaved people attending each Friday, with new referrals being made weekly, to receive peer-support, friendship and companionship from others who have been bereaved, making them feel less alone in their grief, and reducing feelings of social isolation and loneliness, whilst promoting better mental health and wellbeing. 

There is very limited support in the community for bereaved people, with waiting lists at an all-time high, highlighting the importance of community supports, such as Healing Hearts, which has already made a significant difference to bereaved people across North Ayrshire. 

Room at Kilwinning Library at £3.70 ph x 2 hours per week = £7.40 per week x 48 weeks = £355.20 for the year. The group also require tea, coffee, milk, sugar and biscuits for each group, averaging £6 per week = £288

Total £983.20

Our project will be to purchase a new defibrillator which our community volunteers will use to provide lifesaving treatment to anyone who needs it on Irvine beach and as part of our community outreach projects. Volunteers will be trained how to use the defibrillator, increasing their existing skillset around first aid, increasing resilience and building their confidence to use the lifesaving piece of equipment.

Our volunteers benefit from reduced social isolation by volunteering at Coastwatch through the day and at weekends, benefiting their health and wellbeing. Having equipment such as the defibrillator is essential to providing that service for volunteers and the public. All our volunteers learn from each other’s varying experience and Coastwatch has a sense of community spirit among the volunteers, building positive relationships within the community.

Breakdown of costs:

Mindray C1A Semi-Automatic defibrillator - £1100

Coastwatch will subsidise the additional £100 from our own funds.

Our postcard collection was digitised last winter using private facilities. The remaining collections should be digitised inhouse.   This will be an opporunity for our current and new members/volunteers to come together over the winter months while the museum is closed to the general public.   This project will be a major contribution to ensuring that our heritage is safely recorded for future generations. To make this possible we would kindly ask for funding towards: 

Viisan S21 A2 Overhead Scanner £335 Epson FastFoto FF-680W Scanner £440 Brother MFC-J5345DW Scanner/copier £160 Toshiba 2TB Canvio Basics Portable External Hard Drive £50

Choices Community Shop currently has over 500+ households registered to access a food with dignity approach to addressing food insecurity in the local area. With an equal divide of families, couples and single people, the cost of cooking food is a worry for everyone. With winter approaching and the cost of living ongoing, many households have told us that they are worried about whether they will be able to heat and cook this year. 

Choices Community Shop would therefore like to purchase food and containers to be able to prepare healthy, nutricious "ready meals" that households can take as part of the offer within the food larder. These meals will be suitable for heating in a microwave thus reducing the households cooking costs.

Food for meals: £800

Food Safe Containers: £200

New communal instruments i.e. drums - £500 Hall let hire - £100 Uniforms for young people - £250 Tutoring from professionals - £150 Total - £1000

Having new equipment would allow the band to take on more beginners and give more young people the opportunity to take part in the band. We have some New Scots in the band and would love to be able to take on more to share the culture of Scottish music. People from all over North Ayrshire come to the band and its an opportunity for people to link up and get to know new people and make friends. In terms of mental health and wellbeing, we have some people in the band who suffer from PTSD, elderly people and some who are socially isolated.

The pipe band is really beneficial for the volunteers who build their confidence running the band and getting this funding would mean a lot to us in terms of increasing capacity and learning how to do more things with the band. We work with other voluntary organisations across Irvine to provide pipers for special events at a discounted rate and also refer people to the band who want to learn a new instrument.

The Skelmorlie Community Garden Group took over the running and maintenance of the space outside Skelmorlie Library from North Ayrshire Council in Spring of 2023. The local community have put a lot of work and love into making the space beautiful and relaxing, and would like to add a little lending library to further enhance the garden's aims to promote wellbeing, sustainability and community spirit.

We think that this speaks to the goals of this round of participatory budgeting; building community, looking after the environment (re-using books), cost of living and health and wellbeing. The garden has been set up to be a contemplative space and a little library would foster this.

We have spoken with the staff of Skelmorlie Library, who fully support the project.

We have spoken with the North Coast and Cumbraes Men's Shed who could build this for us for around £100. We have uploaded a picture to show you the type of little library we are intending to install.

Relocate existing central hanging basket framework within garden £50 : Replace with less intrusive (no hanging baskets) metal frame to secure Seasonal Displays in Central position £250

Install new pipe ducting for lighting cables (Christmas Tree) £50 :  Install Two secondary metal frames to secure side seasonal displays £150

Install Two additional half barrels for seasonal planting £50 : install additional paving slabs to displays/garden £150 

Introduce "Largs Community Council Garden" sign to promote group and encourage membership / let people know who maintains garden area £150 

Introduce information sign that advise "what's happening" in Largs ie Viking Fesival, Yuletide, Barrfields Theatre shows etc £150

We are applying for funding to enable our group members to plan and experience a trip to the theatre and afternoon tea up in Glasgow in the new year.

Social activities such as this can have a genuinely positive impact of the health and wellbeing of older people.  This is especially true in the winter months when the cost of living and social isolation can have a significantly negative impact on people’s lives, especially for older members of the community.  This would be an opportunity for our group members to experience a special outing which many would not be able to access independently due challenges faced through physical health and mental wellbeing.

To enable us to do this we would use any funding we received for:

Transport to Glasgow: £160

Theatre tickets: £560

Afternoon Tea: £280

We are applying for £1000.

Rough guide costs per large container which will house a couple of Mini Munch cucumber plants, 2 tumbling tom tomato plants, or a courgette plant/2 kales/1 broccoli plant/mixed salad with radishes and spring onions, etc For a 35litre trug with compost and pearlite for £15 per filled pot

or 15litre pots/trugs with 1 tumbling tom tomato plant/1 mini-munch cucumber/several lettuces/1kale/ with compost and pearlite around £5 per filled pot

+Seaweed (organic) concentrate fertiliser filled from plastic drinks bottles that people can bring to us around £8 per filled pot

+Seeds between £1-3 per person (some are specialist varieties we have tried out this year to check for size, yield and taste)

Participants will be able to choose several plants and a start up kit that suits them and their gardens best. 

If the average take up was a 3 trug start-up per person then we estimate that we would have enough funds to secure £55 per household for 18 households. We anticipate people taking up a mixture of pots/trugs and some only taking 1 of either. We think around half of participants  will be Village Larder customers.