31st March 2016
Live Well for Longer
Tesco Local Community Grants
Bradwell Wind Farm Community Fund
Direct Payment Support Services Consultation
Parking Charges increase
Half Day Conference for Mental Health Providers
Live Well for Longer
A FREE information event for older people aimed at helping them stay healthy, active and safe is being held onWednesday 20th April between 10am and 3pm at the Blackwater Leisure Centre, Maldon. This free event will include a light lunch and refreshments.
Councillor Ron Pratt, Chairman of the District Council's Community Services Committee; said "It is important that we help to organise events which provide information to enable our older residents to remain safe, healthy and active in their own homes. I hope that this event which is being delivered with a number of our partners including Fire, Police, Moat Homes, Places for People (providers of our sports and leisure centres) and Essex County Council will be of great benefit to our residents."
The event will consist of informative presentations on a range of subjects in the morning, an optional exercise session and a market place type information stall event in the afternoon, where residents can browse and talk to representatives of local organisations who provide services for older people. Comfortable clothing and flat shoes should be worn by those wishing to undertake the exercise.
A guide to services for older people entitled 'Age Well' will be launched at this event, copies of which will then be made available at
Places are free but please confirm attendance by or phone 01621 875811. Transport will be made available in certain circumstances and can be requested at the same time.
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Tesco Local Community Grants
Do you know of a local community green space project that would benefit from funding? If so, there are Bags of Help at hand! Money raised from the 5p bag charge in Tesco stores in the UK will be used to pay for a large number of local projects to improve green spaces in communities across the UK.
In total the Bags of Help programme will support around 2,500 projects each year across the UK – over 300 of those will be in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk. There will be two funding rounds per year over the next three years. The next funding round opens on18th April for 6 weeks.
Grants of £8,000, £10,000 and £12,000 are available for open space improvements that benefit the community. Eligible projects include spaces such as pocket parks, school grounds, allotments, sports facilities, woodland walks and community gardens.
Groundwork is administering the funding and you can find all the details on theirdedicated website:
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Bradwell Wind Farm Community Fund
Bradwell Wind Farm Community Fundsupports community projects in the area of Bradwell-on-Sea and Tillingham. Funding applications will be accepted until Monday 25th April. Decisions will be made mid-May. The Panel particularly encourages small community and not-for-profit groups to apply where a small grant can make a real difference to the local community.
Bradwell Wind Farm Community Fund was set up in 2013 by RWE Npower Renewables for the life of the wind farm (up to 25 years), to support community projects and activities in Bradwell-on-Sea and Tillingham with grants of up to £10,000. The Fund is administered by ECF, an independent charitable trust with a panel of local people making the decisions.
To date, 17 grants have been awarded in Bradwell and Tillingham to a value of £70,348 supporting a wide range of community projects and activities, e.g. upgrading and improving a wildlife area and study centre, extending advice outreach and home visiting services to the two villages, improving cricket facilities, setting up of an under eights football team, contributing to a multi-use games area for use by young people, improvement to village hall facilities, supporting community shop sustainability, supporting local scouts and guides.
Help and support is available through the application process – please call the Grants Team on 01245 356018 or email Local support can be provided by Sarah Laskar at Maldon CVS on 01621 851891 or
For ECF's guidelines and standard application form please go to: choose the under £1,000 or over £1,000 process.
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Direct Payment Support Services Consultation
Essex County Council has launched the Direct Payment Support Services (DPSS) Consultation which will run for 6 weeks. These are services that help people with:
- Writing their Care and Support Plan
- Payroll for Personal Assistants who they employ
- Accounts Payable, helping people to pay bills and invoices
- Help and advice to recruit a Personal Assistant
- Help and advice on employment issues for people who have their own Personal Assistant
ECC are looking at changing how some of the services are delivered and need to understand how this may affect service users and carers. The questions they are asking will help them to make sure they design and have the right services.
The survey is open online until 28th April 2016. For more information or to complete the survey clickhere
If you would prefer to complete the survey over the telephone, or require it in an alternative format, please call Healthwatch on 0300 5001895 (between 9am and 5pm, Mondays-Fridays except public holidays).
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Parking Charges Increase
From Monday 4th April Maldon District Council will be introducing evening parking charges of £1 in their High Street car parks.
Maldon and District CVS have been asked to gather feedback about how this affects the community and have a particular interest in the effect on community groups and volunteers.
Perhaps your organisation is likely to be affected through increased volunteer expenses or will it be a deterrent in recruiting volunteers? Will it affect your beneficiaries who may need to access your services in the evenings?
If your organisation will be affected in anyway by the increased charges then please drop MDCVS Director Sarah Laskar an email on to let us know and we will endeavour to ensure that Maldon District Council are made aware.
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Half Day Conference for Mental Health Providers
‘A Rounded Approach’
‘A Rounded Approach’is a half-day conference for mental health providers, commissioners and professionals which will take place at Chelmsford Football Ground on 25th April 2016 from 10 am to 1 pm.
The keynote speaker is confirmed as Dr Caroline Dollery, Clinical Chair of Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group and a GP at Beacon Health Group in Danbury.
Places at the conference are free and refreshments, including a light lunch, will be provided. Please mark the date in your diary and register your interest at we will then send you further information.
A limited number of exhibition spaces are available for organisations delivering services to improve mental health in Chelmsford, Braintree, Maldon or Rayleigh & Rochford districts. For more information or if you are interested in exhibiting please contact: , 01245 351888 or , 01621 851891.
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