Transcript

for customer and community's decisions. I'm Denise Turner-Stewart, Cabinet Member for Customer and Communities, and I would like to welcome Samantha Mills and Sarah Quinn to this meeting today. Item 1, we have no declarations of interest, no procedural matters, no member questions, and no public questions. So the substantive item is your Fon Sari application for Farngcombe Community Garden Hub in Godelming, and if Samantha, if you'd like to introduce that would be lovely. Thank you. Yes, good morning. So YFS Large Community Fund is designed to bring community-led placemaking projects to life, providing wide community benefits and a lasting legacy in the community. This project application is for £114,000 for the Farnham Community Garden Hub, which is located in Godelming, as you said. The community garden itself was created in 2017 by GPs from the Binscombe Medical Centre, inspired by social prescribing as a way to improve health and wellbeing. The garden currently includes a car park, woodworking area, compost toilet, orchard, pond, fruit and vegetable beds, a woodland area, and a fire pit. The garden has seen over 100 volunteers since it started operating and hosted several community events, one of which was an open day this year which attracted over 250 people. They've made lots of links with the local schools, social prescribers and care homes. Consultation that they've undertaken with the local community has identified an enthusiasm for nature-based community projects, and this request for funding will help provide an accessible wooden cabin with a toilet, meeting space and kitchen facilities to expand the range of activities that they can undertake and allow the gardening activities to be used all year round. It will also include solar panels and a heat pump and be fully insulated carbon neutral. The project will then help tackle loneliness, social isolation and mental health by connecting people more closely to the natural world and enable groups that traditionally struggle to access nature and green spaces to be able to make more use of it. The project has got planning permission and it's achieved a good amount of community support as well as from organisations such as GPs, charities, schools and the care home in Farngham. So the project's requesting £114,000 of the total project cost, which is £144,000. That's 79% of the total cost. The balance is made up of a grant of £30,000 from the care home. And they have previously received sill fundings for accessible pathways within the garden as well, so it's supported well locally. Their income is expected to come from open days, plant sales, workshops and hire of the new meeting space that we would be funding, and will more than cover the ongoing maintenance costs of running the venue going forward. So this project supports the council's green objectives, health outcomes and sort of the community building aspects of the vision. And it's the recommendation of the advisory panel to recommend funding the full amount requested.

Thank you very much, Sam. Thank you for going into so much detail, because this is another really, really wonderful project, and it's fantastic to know that this will enable the users of the facility to be able to be sheltered and provided for all year round. It's a real shame to have to sort of close down activities in the winter, and you talked about the accessibility, particularly for those that would find it difficult to be able to participate in these sort of activities. I mean, it's a wonderful provision, and as you said, you've got a very nice donation from the care home and still funding previously, so this is clearly a very sustainable project. It's really enjoyable to list your presentation, thank you, and to look forward to seeing the facility up and running when the cabin's built. So I'm very happy to take this decision. Thank you very much. [end of transcript] 1 [ Silence ]