Westbury Area Board hands out community grants

WESTBURY Area Board handed out nearly £6,000 in community grants at its meeting recently.

Four groups received grants in order to support the work they do within the community. Grants were given to Bratton Recreation Ground, West Wilts Society of Model Engineers, the Laverton Institute Trust and Fairfield Farm College.

Bratton Recreation Ground were awarded £1,000 towards various items of equipment to support the  maintenance of pitches. Mike Manson, chairman of the Bratton Recreation Ground Committee said, “The Bratton Recreation Ground Committee are very pleased indeed to have been awarded another grant by the Westbury Area Board.  We are very grateful that the area board has once again recognised the value of the Recreation Ground to local sports clubs and villagers.

“We currently have three adult cricket teams (from Bratton, Westbury and Trowbridge) and one age group from Trowbridge Town Youth Football Club, all playing their home matches at Bratton Rec, and next season a second youth age group from TTFC will play home games there as well.

“All this requires good equipment to maintain the grass pitches and surrounding areas. Westbury Area Board’s grant will enable us to purchase replacement equipment for mowing and grass rolling.”

The Laverton Institute Trust were awarded over £2,000 towards a new projector. Lilly Bale from Westbury Town Council said, “We are delighted to have received the grant from Westbury Area Board. For some time now we have been experiencing problems with our projector and we needed a long term solution. The grant will pay for half of the projector and we have reserved funds to pay for the other half.

“The projector is vital for the hall as around 90% of those who hire it need the projector. It is vital that we are able to offer the best audio and visual facilities to those who hire the hall to ensure that the facility continues to benefit the whole community.”

West Wilts Society of Model Engineers were awarded £750 towards a new milling machine and Fairfield Farm College were awarded over £2,000 towards sports equipment for use on their recently installed Multi Use Games Area (MUGA).