Honiton: £70,000 has been given to community organisations such as TRIP

East Devon District Council (EDDC) have given nearly £70,000 to 14 community projects, through their Crowdfund scheme, including to TRIP.

Crowdfund East Devon started in February 2019. Since then, it has given grants to a number of community projects in East Devon.

Honiton's TRIP community charity received £7,500 to help them replace a 17-year-old wheelchair accessible electric vehicle that was at the end of its life.

Sharon Thorne of TRIP told Nub News about the benefits the vehicle has brought to TRIP's users.

She said: "We have now had the electric vehicle for about four months, and it has made such a massive difference to our services.

"The feedback has been that people love trips in cars, as it's slightly higher than a car. Also, the position of the wheelchair also means the passenger can feel more engaged with the journey, rather than feeling like being in the boot of the car!"

There were delays in establishing a charging point for the vehicle, but this is expected to be installed at The Beehive soon.

Sharon continued: "We have excellent community support as well.

"Honiton Town Council and Andrew at Honiton Electrix has supported TRIP to get an EV charge point at The Beehive, and we hope this will be completed soon."

In Axminster, £2,000 was given to No Toy Left Behind, which is a Community Interest Company that hopes to encourage more people to purchase second hand toys.

The charity aims to reduce waste by selling clean, good quality second-hand toys which could be given as gifts.

Ottery St. Mary's Coleridge Memorial Trust received £5,160 to fund a life-size statue of world-famous poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who born in Ottery in 1772, at St Mary's Church.

Unfortunately, Crowdfund East Devon have not received any applications for grants in the past four months. Consequently, EDDC have terminated the scheme.

They are now looking into different ways the remaining funds could be given to worthwhile community projects.

Applications to Crowdfund will be accepted until April 4. To be eligible, projects must have already raised a minimum of 25% of the total amount they're trying to raise from their local community.

Councillor Jack Rowland, East Devon District Council portfolio holder for Finance said: "We have not seen any new crowdfund applications for over 4 months.

"The EDDC Community Grants Panel considered other options to allocate the remaining fund and decided to recommend to launch a replacement one off scheme of grants of between £500 and £5,000. Further details will be published very soon."

More information on the funds is available [L] https://eastdevon.gov.uk/grants-and-funding/grants-available-from-us/crowdfunding/ [L+] here.