Ashcourt Durham & Tees Valley Community Fund – Eligibility Criteria

Fund Overview

• The Ashcourt Durham & Tees Valley Community Fund has approximately £145,000 available per year, funded by donations from Ashcourt Group, through the Landfill Communities Fund.
• There are two deadlines for applications, each year.
• Grants between £5,000 and £25,000 are available.

Contributing Third Party (CTP) Payment

Each grant awarded may require a donation to be made to Ashcourt Group so that the grant can be released by GrantScape. This is called a Contributing Third Party (CTP) donation. The CTP donation covers Ashcourt Group’s costs in providing monies for the grant through the Landfill Communities Fund, plus associated fees. You will be informed if a CTP donation is required if a grant is awarded.

In simple terms, each £11.50 of CTP donation will release £100 of funding for the project.

The application form asks groups to identify an individual or organisation who would be willing to make this CTP donation if they are awarded a grant.

Detailed information on why CTP donations are necessary, who can provide these and how to calculate the approximate amount required is provided in GrantScape’s quick reference guide: “Contributing Third Party (CTP) Guidance”.

Who Can Apply?

Eligible organisations, who can apply for funding include:

• Voluntary organisations, community groups / associations, sports clubs (note exclusion criteria regarding membership restrictions), local and national Charities
• Parish & Town Councils
• Local Authorities
• Social enterprises and Community Interest Companies operating on a non-profit-distributing basis. These are defined by Social UK as ‘businesses that trade to tackle social problems, improve communities, people’s life chances, or the environment. They make their money from selling goods and services in the open market, but they reinvest their profits back into the business or the local community’.
  These organisations must have a minimum of three unrelated Directors, that also do not reside at the same address.

To be eligible to apply to the Ashcourt Durham & Tees Valley Community Fund, an organisation must:

• Have a written constitution, a set of rules, or a governing document and a bank account or building society account, held in the name of the organisation, in place before applying for a grant.
• Be run on a not-for-profit basis.
• Own or hold a lease for the project site with at least 5 years remaining. Projects should be based at a project site which must be owned or leased by the applying organisation. If your organisation neither owns the project site, nor has a lease with a minimum of 5 years remaining, you are not eligible to apply. The lease must be active before any application is made. Letters of intent or draft lease agreements are not accepted.

Project Location

To be eligible for a Ashcourt Durham & Tees Valley Community Fund, your project must be located within 10 miles of Stonegrave Quarry.

Please click on the map image below, to check that your project is located within the eligible funding area:

Project Purpose

Grants are available for community projects delivering capital improvements to public amenities. Examples may include:

• Village hall improvements
• Nature reserves and conservation
• Village greens
• Community centres
• Public playgrounds
• Cycle paths
• Sports fields and facilities
• Country parks

Public Access Requirements

Projects must be available and open to the general public as defined by ENTRUST, the Landfill Communities Fund regulator – as a minimum, for 4 evenings a week, or 2 days a week, or 104 days a year.

Exclusions

Grants will not be available for:

• Community Shops
• Membership-based sports clubs and facilities (e.g. bowls and golf clubs), unless membership is open to the general public without undue restriction (e.g. restrictive fees, membership by nomination)
• Commercial organisations
• Individuals
• Projects that are considered statutory requirements
• Core cost or revenue based funding
• Retrospective funding (i.e. funding can only be requested for works that will begin / expenditure that will be incurred AFTER our funding decision has been made and a formal grant Contract issued)
• Projects at schools, colleges, nurseries, pre-schools and other educational establishments
• Bus services, minibus services, or vehicles
• Projects at hospitals, or hospices, or day care centres
• Any works to public highways
• Projects to deliver visual enhancements (i.e. ‘a view’), as this does not improve, maintain or provide a general public amenity
• Village or town centre enhancements, such as walkways, street works or signage
• CD’s, web-sites or remote interpretation about a site
• Public car parks, unless they are specific to a general public amenity
• Public conveniences
• Allotments, fruit / food growing projects
• Charity buildings, offices of charities, Citizens’ Advice Bureaux and advice centres
• Large scale perimeter / security fencing programmes that do not directly enhance the public amenity
• Land purchase

Judging Criteria

The main criteria used when assessing applications received will be:

• The level of community support for and involvement in the project
• The local community benefit and enjoyment which will result from the project

Other factors that will also be considered when assessing the applications include:

• The ability of the applicant to deliver the project
• How the work will be continued after the project has been completed, i.e. its sustainability and legacy
• Value for money
• Match funding is not required, but priority may be given to groups that can demonstrate efforts have been made to fund raise towards the project costs.

If, after reading the above, you are confident that your project is eligible, please click Next, below: