Funding

The Group bank account is now established, with such funds as we have gained from the Vibrant Village award. This will immediately be depleted by the costs of posts and netting for the very necessary fruit cages.

We have applied for funds from the Co-op (£500 from their social fund) which will pay for the fencing and espaliers that will define the path and separate off the productive area from the public access spaces. They will notify us of their decision by August/September, which is fine for the 2011/12 planting season.

More time was spent preparing an application for Glos County Council “Access Community” funds. We have asked for £2,350 to pay for most of the rest of the trees and fencing. Mary and I are indebted to Gill Glover, OHMG’s fund raiser, for her advice on how to express our bid. Hopefully we have enough ideas to be able to tackle more applications quite quickly.

Finally, Stroud Valley Project are still trying to extract money from the Big Tree Plant fund. Our first bid for six large trees was turned down but Julie Wickham was “encouraged” to re-apply for larger numbers of smaller trees. I’ve asked for 100, no messing.

It seems that we need to back several horses to win any money, so I don’t know what happens if we get the lot! Might need another orchard……