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 The Local Organisations grants scheme, which supports important local voluntary organisations, has been running since 2017 using a proportion of the parish precept.   Over the years the fund has supported developments and provision for the benefit of the wider community at the Highside Playing Fields, the Bowling Club, the Mechanics Institute, Kirkby in Bloom, the Youth Club and other groups.  By supplementing the organisations’ own fund-raising, this Parish Council funding has helped ensure the important provision of these local organisations continue for the benefit of all. 

From 2023 is proposed to continue with the scheme at the current level by allocating £6,000 in the Parish Council precept to Local Organisation Grants in each of the next four financial years. (The Parish precept last year was £31.75 for a Band D property of which £11.72 is allocated to these local grants.   This equates to an approx. cost of 23p per week per household.) 

Applications by local organisations which benefit local residents will be invited annually each January for consideration at the February meeting of the Parish Council.

Statements below illustrate the importance of the scheme to two of the local community organisations, the Mechanics’ Institute Village Hall and the Highside Playing Fields Association:

Kirkby Malzeard Mechanics Institute Village Hall
 
The Mechanics Institute Village Hall is an outstanding community facility that has been serving Kirkby Malzeard and the surrounding villages and hamlets since 1852. Unfortunately, a building of such age has required considerable maintenance, extension, and refurbishment costs over the years.
 
We recently undertook a carbon reduction survey, offered to us by ACRE/ Community First North Yorkshire to find out how much we could reduce our carbon footprint and the amounts needed to do this work. We were one of over 600 village community buildings that applied for this work and were one of the lucky ones accepted for the building engineers survey. 
 
Considering the current energy crisis, we are anticipating a huge increase in our energy bills this year. The above survey indicates how much the prohibitive costs are to reduce these bills if we are to maintain our current activity.
 
The building and its resources are also the designated “Emergency Rest Centre’ for the village in the event of any crisis incident and we are currently investigating the potential costs of an emergency generator to support this resource.
 
Current activity in the building is steadily increasing, which is a real asset to the village, bringing quality entertainment, educational, and recreational activity to our rural area. We are now also being approached by professional musicians, their agencies and theatre companies as a venue for their national and regional tours. 
The ‘Technical’ equipment in the building is now over 30 years old and needs to be brought up to date. This will only happen in the short term by grant application. The Wi-fi and telephone that were initially funded by an NYCC grant have now also expired and are now fully funded by our generated income.
 
All this activity is supported by our team of volunteers. Many venues of such capacity in the area have paid administrative staff, which is something we may aspire to in the future.
 
The generous annual grant from the Parish Council funds consistently supports this positive progress.
 
The Highside Playing Fields Association
 
The Highside Playing Fields Association is a registered charity run by volunteers who organise, manage and upkeep of all the facilities, including Football, Cricket, Tennis Courts, Bowls and Quoits and a Multi-Use Games Area. 
 
The principal of operation is to provide outdoor recreation and sports facilities for the residence of the parish, outside of organised clubs all the facilities are regularly used by members of the parish.  To have such free facility in a small village is a real bonus for all the community and helps to make Kirkby Malzeard, Laverton and Dallowgill a desirable place to live. 
 
Although we charge annual membership for user groups, the geographic nature of the playing fields makes it very difficult to police and charge entry fees and all members of the parish are able to use the playing fields facilities for free. Many residents believe the facilities are provided by Harrogate Borough Council (not the case!) The income from subscriptions and fund raising events is not sufficient to maintain the running cost. Without a substantial input from grant funding HPFA would be unable to carry out essential repairs or maintenance, which will reduce the quality of the services and the risk continued provision of these essential facilities.
 
Examples of how the Parish Council Grant funding is essential to the continued provision of HPFA are:
 

1. The Kirkby Malzeard Bowls Club is a great community asset for the village particularly as it is an activity accessible to (possibly isolated) older people. The bowls green and facilities need a programme of renovation over the next 5 years costing circa £25000. The club membership is too small to afford this outlay itself. The benefits of supporting KMBC are that the club can continue to enter local club competitions such as the Dalesman league as well as being able to host friendly matches with other local clubs such as West Tanfield and Masham. Lawn Bowls is recognised as a low impact sport suitable for those who perhaps haven’t played competitive sport before and who would gain significant health benefits from the activity. It is also a social sport with plenty of opportunity to engage with new people and make new friends. 
2. The Tennis group has recently reformed, they offer a sport for all ages of the community along with coaching and social engagement. The intention is to build the club and include facilities for tourists. However, HPFA needs to finance approximately £5000 every 5 years for the periodic maintenance of the courts.
3. The Junior football club has a substantial membership, they offer an essential form of exercise, discipline and social activities for younger members of the community. However, the success of this organisation relies on HPFA maintaining good facilities in the pavilion and a high quality pitch year on year.  In consideration of increasing electricity costs we plan to swap ageing Halogen lamps to LED low power lamps in the coming year.   

Comments by Sunday 11 December are welcome on this website (you need to login first) or by email or post to the Parish Council Clerk: Email: clerk.kmldpc@outlook.com. Victoria Preston, 17 Cypress Gardens, Ripon, HG4 2LT (Postal enquiries only) Tel: 07725801675