Please send your application to:

Richard Gibson, Cheltenham Borough Council, Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1PP. Email:

Closing date for applications is 5.00pmFriday 20th September 2013

Final decisions will be made by the Borough Council’s Cabinet on 15 October 2013.

1.Contact Details

Name of Organisation / Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
Address / RobinswoodHillCountryPark, Reservoir Road, Gloucester, GL4 6SX
Telephone / 01452 393333
Email /
Name of Contact Person / Barbara Williams
Position in the organisation / Grants Development Manager

2. Organisational Status Please tick all that apply:

Registered charity / Charity number: / 232580
Company Limited by guarantee / Company number: / 708575
Charitable Trust / Constituted Voluntary organisation
Other (please explain)
If you are a charity with an income over £5,000, have you registered with the Charity Commission? YES If not, we may contact you about this.
Is your organisation signed up to the Gloucestershire Compact?
No
If not, are you willing to consider it?
Yes

3. About any previous funding

Please note: to be considered for funding this year your organisation must have submitted appropriate monitoring information from previous awards

Have you received funding from this grant scheme before? Yes
When was your latest award? 2012
Has the project for which you were funded been completed? No
Have you presented a final year report and monitoring documentation for that year? No

3. About Your Project

Name of project
Tales from the Riverbank: Cheltenham’s Wild Waters
Project timescale
Start date:
January 2014 / Finish date:
September 2014
Please give a brief description of your project including what it aims to achieve (maximum of 100 words). This will appear in public documents so please be accurate.
We aim to raise awareness of local waterways, educate school children about the wildlife associated with rivers and support local action to improve the quality of riverbank habitat to encourage this wildlife to thrive.
How will this project build up community pride and enable your group to be more influential in supporting your community and improving your neighbourhood?
We plan to work with local outreach theatre group Dreamshed to visit 4 Cheltenham schools (St Marks Primary, Gloucester Road Primary, Dunalley Primary, St Gregory’s Catholic Primary), and stage performances of ‘The Wind in the Willows’. This favourite children’s story has been specifically adapted to illustrate the plight of water voles (Ratty) in the UK, and introduce a range of other wildlife characters, including badger, mole and toad, all of which can be found in Gloucestershire. This has proved a very effective tool for engaging children with wildlife and explaining in an interesting and original way the impact the misconnection of washing machines, dishwashers, baths and sinks in the home has on creatures living in the river and the wildlife that depends on healthy waters. We will leave specifically-tailored National-Curriculum linked lesson plans relating to the local watercourses that the teachers can use on an ongoing basis.
We will follow up this newly generated interest in rivers and native wildlife by organising 4 community river improvement days – each hosted by the pupils of the schools visited by ‘Wind in the Willows’ to engage their local communities with their local waterways, and share their new knowledge and concerns. These will take place on the Hatherley Brook, Wyman’s Brook/Pitville and the River Chelt. In addition to displays of the children’s work following on from the theatre visit we will run demonstrations of how to identify invasive species such as Himalayan balsam (which is easy to identify and remove), offer an induction on safe use of tools and present the opportunity to undertake practical conservation work to remove invasive species and clear watercourses of rubbish and debris. We expect that the children’s enthusiasm will engage and motivate local adults – parents, grandparents and local contacts – to take an active role in maintaining these watercourses.
We also hope to install a camera-trap in each area, which will be monitored to capture pictures of the wildlife that visits the newly-restored areas, to further engage and interest the children involved and their local community. Where possible we will install these on gardens and private land alongside stretches of watercourse we have worked on, for additional security.
In addition we will provide information about all activities to the Gloucestershire Centre for Environmental Records. They will be able to produce a restoration map of the area covered to show areas that have been improved, areas with potential for further improvement and mapping areas of Himalayan balsam
What permissions and/or licences do you need to achieve your project and what are your plans / timescale to secure these permissions?
Environment Agency – our plans are in line with their objectives in urban centres of Gloucestershire and we have their verbal support for our plans.
Cheltenham Borough Council owns some of the land where we will require access to watercourses – this has been discussed with Janice Peacey, Cheltenham Borough Council’s Biodiversity Officer, and permission has been secured.
Who will benefit from the project?
Children in 4 local schools will benefit from the project. This equates to a total of 959 children (St Marks- 237, Gloucester Road – 131, Dunalley – 225 and St Gregory’s – 366) who will have learned about local wildlife and have gained an understanding of the problems facing water voles and a new enthusiasm for their local rivers. In addition we expect around 20 adults to participate in each river restoration day – 80 adults will learn about their local wildlife and gain new skills in wildlife identification and conservation and contribute time and energy to making a practical difference to the appearance of their neighbourhood and the health of their local watercourses.
This will also benefit hundreds of people who live locally and walk, live, or play alongside the newly-improved river banks.
How will you know if the project has been a success?
We will seek feedback from all teachers and children involved in the ‘Wind in the Willows’ performances. We will use this feedback to enable us to make amendments and adjustments to the play so that it continues to entertain, while delivering important conservation messages. We will monitor the numbers of adults and children attending our river improvement days and request that they complete questionnaires to ensure that the days are useful and inspiring, and to measure if it has changed their perceptions of the river and its wildlife.
What are the longer term plans for the project once the grant funding has come to an end?
We will leaveNational Curriculum-linked lesson plans at the schools we visit so that the subjects we have covered can be reviewed and expanded by the teachers within the National Curriculum and the framework of ongoing teaching. We hope that the new identification skills learned by the members of the public will enable them to continue removing invasive species beyond the life of the project. We will also specifically invite local anglers along to the ‘restoration days’, since they have a working knowledge of healthy rivers, which can be shared, and a vested interest in the ongoing health of their local watercourses.
Who else will you work with to deliver the project?
Dreamshed theatre company. St Marks, Gloucester Road, Dunalley and St Gregory’s CatholicPrimary Schools.

4. Please complete if your project involves children and young people or vulnerable adults

Do you have a Safeguarding Children & Vulnerable Adults Policy? (Please note we may request to see a copy of it)
Yes
Are all your staff and volunteers who will be associated with the project CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checked?
Yes
If no to either of the above, what measures do you have in place to safeguard children and young people and/or vulnerable adults on your project?
N.A.

5. About the money you are asking for

£
Total amount your project will cost / 7,738
Amount you are asking the council for / 3,869
Where is the rest of the funding coming from?
Please itemise each source
SOURCE / £ / Is this funding secured?
Dreamshed Theatre (in kind)
Donations from individuals and the Langtree Trust towards our education work
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust – to cover project support costs and back office support, and some Gloucestershire Centre for Environmental Records mapping / 1,000
1,155
1214 / YES
YES
YES
Corporate sponsorship of one Wind in the Willows performance / 500 / NO

6. How you will spend the money

Total spend / Grant requested
Equipment or materials (please specify)
Litter pickers (x 20)
Heavy duty gloves (for removing invasive plants and litter picking – x 20 pairs)
Children’s high visibility jackets
Camera traps x 4
Educational materials to leave in schools / £215
£100
£40
£600
£80 / £215
£100
£40
£600
£0
Staff expenses
School & theatre liaison, presenting ‘Wind in the Willows’ and adapting teaching materials – 8 days
Planning, promoting and delivering ‘River Restoration’ days – 8 days
Travel costs / £1,144
£1,144
£64 / £364
£1,144
£64
Room hire/rent or other overheads (please specify)
Refreshments for event participants / £40 / £40
Other (please specify)
Dreamshed theatre, Wind in the Willows performances
Unrecoverable VAT
Gloucestershire Centre for Environmental Records – production of a ‘restoration map’
Project support costs (eg lighting, printing, marketing, production and analysis of feedback forms of questionnaires and project management) / £2,000
£607
£980
£724 / £500
£312
£490
£0
TOTALS / 7,738 / 3,869

This part is to be signed by all applicants.

If you are submitting this form by email, please print and send a signed copy (at least a copy of your signature page) in the post to the address on the front of this form.

Declaration and Data Protection Statement Data Protection Act

I confirm that the organisation/group named in this form has authorised me to sign this application on their behalf.

The information contained in this application is correct, to the best of my knowledge, and I confirm that any grant aid received will be used solely for the purposes specified in the application.

I agree to my name and my organisation’s details being held on paper or electronic files.

I understand that the information in this form may be shared with other local funders.

Don’t forget to send the following:

A copy of your constitution

A copy of your latest accounts

Signature
Name of person signing / Barbara Williams
Position in Organisation / Grants Development Manager
Date / 9th September 2013

Community Pride Grant Application Guidelines

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