Green Shoots (Community climate change grants)

Overview

What is the Warwickshire Green Shoots Fund?

Warwickshire County Council has approved the creation of a new £1 million community fund to help address the climate change emergency. This new fund will support initiatives to deliver local climate change projects which reduce our carbon emissions and lessen our impact on our environment. The key focus for the fund is to enable Warwickshire communities to deliver their own local solutions.

Any community group or voluntary organisation – including schools, parish and town councils – can apply for money from the fund.

For more information about how Warwickshire County Council is facing the challenges of the climate change emergency, visit: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/theclimateemergency.

We want your feedback

As this is a new scheme, we want your feedback on the scope and administration of the fund. We want to ensure that there is a straightforward application process in place, to understand the potential levels of interest in different types of project and what levels of funding might be needed. We are therefore inviting you to complete our online survey below.

Completing the survey will help ensure that your feedback covers some of the specific areas we would like to explore. There is an opportunity to share any other thoughts you have in the survey.

If you would prefer to share your views directly via email or if you have any queries please contact us at askwarwickshire@warwickshire.gov.uk.

Below is some key information about the fund. Please read through this before completing the survey.

Who can apply?

1. Any community group (large or small, formal or informal)
2. Parish and town councils, including those working in partnership with their district and borough councils
3. State-funded schools
4. Any combination of the above, working in partnership with each other, or with private partnerships (though applications for projects that are solely for-profit or for individual gain would not be successful).

What types of project are we proposing to fund?

1. Projects addressing priorities from parish or community plans
2. Those that include an element of secondary funding (e.g. match funding, partnership initiatives, parallel business investment or fundraising)
3. Those that have good evidence of need and community support (perhaps evidenced by prior public engagement)
4. Preference will be for smaller projects but larger projects will be considered depending on the outcomes they will deliver.

How do we propose the funding scheme will work?

1. Funding will be via one-off grants rather than be an ongoing funding commitment.
2. Applicants will need to give a timescale by which the funds will be spent; those where the spending is over more than 12-months will include a phased payment of the grant according to agreed milestones.
3. Bids will need to include an estimated cost of administration, inputs to be funded and outcomes expected. This is to ensure the grant is spent on the outcomes, with any underspend or undelivered elements returned to the Fund.
4. We anticipate releasing the funding in separate rounds, giving applicants more than one opportunity to bid.
5. We are keen that the application process is straightforward and proportionate, not least to encourage applicants bidding for smaller amounts.
6. Projects will be monitored to ensure the grant is spent appropriately and the project delivers on the expected outcomes.

What happens next

Thank you for taking the time to share your views. We will now consider all the feedback that has been given to us as we develop the scheme.