Group's bloom bid fails to win funding

Consett & Stanley Advertiser - week ending 2nd January 2004
By Dan Jenklns

Volunteers have reacted with outrage after a group set up to regenerate deprived communities refused to back their Northumbria In Bioom bid. Stanley Green Corridor Bloomers, formed in April last year, were hoping to use the competition to improve the area, which takes in Craghead, New Kyo, South Moor, South Stanley and Quaking Houses. They applied for a £7,000 grant from the Stanley Green Corridor Neighbourhood Regeneration Partnership, but were turned down.

Marie Robson, Bloomers secretary, said: "This is very disappointing. We feel we are exactly the sort of group that this partnership should he supporting". The voluntary group had asked for the cash to help to market and promote the bid and get more people involved, and to pay for plants, tubs and other materials. The Stanley Green Corridor Regeneration Partnership was established to improve the area and has set targets to boost attainment levels in education, reduce fear of crime and improve the environment.

The Bloomers bid was one of several submitted to the partnership committee, all vying for cash from a £50,000 pot. The committee turned down the Bloomers and voted to give the entire grant to Stanley School of Technology, for new white boards. Ernest Dobson, partnership chairman, said: "We had limited resources and choices to make, "We are not saying that the proposal from the Bloomers had no merit, but the committee felt we needed to give more towards educational attainment this year. "We may he able to support them in the future."

Mrs Robson said her group would still make a scaled-down entry in the competition. "Northumbria in Bloom is not just about hanging baskets or pretty gardens," she said. "It is as much about sustainability and protecting the environment"

"Other parts of the country that have had similar deprivation problems to us have used this competition and turned their entire communities around within five years"

"This is a classic regeneration issue and it would have a great impact on the ground in a fairly short space of time".