* Celebrating are, front, Eleri Jones, left, of
Citizens Advice Denbighshire, and Sally Lloyd Davies, of SDCP, with, from
left, Ticky Lowe, Leah Edwards, Denbighshire Councillor Melvyn Mile, Barry
Pinel, Clwyd South AM Ken Skates, Welsh Government Economy Minister,
Denbighshire Councillor Graham Timms, Maggie Smith, Roger Cragg, Michael
McNamara, Margaret Sutherland and Heulwen Wright
Llangollen is to share in a £500,000 lottery
bonanza won by a community charity to fight rural poverty in Denbighshire’s Dee
Valley.
The money from the Big Lottery Fund will help
extend the reach of Corwen-based South Denbighshire Community Partnership to local
organisations in Llangollen and its surrounding area and will be spread over
four years to autumn 2024.
It will be administered by SDCP through their Your
Place Or Ours project and is their second major lottery grant, following the
award of £350,000 30 months ago to work with older and vulnerable people in the
Edeyrnion area around Corwen.
A launch at Pentredwr Community Centre was attended
by Clwyd South AM Ken Skates, the Welsh Government Economy Minister, who said:
“This is a wonderful boost for the Llangollen area which has its share of rural
poverty and the issues of isolation, particularly among the elderly and
vulnerable.
“It is also good to see that South Denbighshire
Community Partnership which has been doing a fantastic job in the Edeyrnion area
around Corwen will now be able to extend their services to this end of the Dee
Valley.”
In the last three years SDCP have built up a wide
portfolio of services including meals-on-wheels, a lunch club, community
transport, green energy generation, grocery and prescription delivery – even
the delivery vehicles is electric.
They have also worked closely with Citizens Advice
Denbighshire to help local people claim almost half a million pounds in
benefits in the last six months, £347,000 since lockdown started in March.
SDCP Community Engagement Officer Sally Lloyd
Davies said: “We are working with and co-ordinating existing groups and
organisations in the Llangollen area which have a similar agenda to ours.
“It means they can make use of the expertise we have
gained in recent years in improving the lives of the vulnerable, the isolated
and those in poverty.
“There are some fantastic local groups across the
Llangollen area and they’re doing great work and this grant boost will enable
us to work together in the future.”
Ticky Lowe, Pentredwr Community Association Events
and Funding Officer, said: “Being part of the SDCP project will bring huge
benefits for our rural community - giving us much needed access to transport,
the meals on wheels service and also offering advice to our residents on
benefits and grants which they could be entitled to via links with Citizens
Advice Denbighshire.
“The SDCP approach is to work with the community to
identify our particular needs and offer help accordingly and I think this approach
will be welcomed.”
Heulwen Wright, Chair of the Friends of Pengwern
Community Centre, has also welcomed the cash injection and the expertise SDCP
bring and she said: “It’s really fortunate and exciting that SDCP are rolling
out these services in Llangollen. It’s nothing but a positive for the town, the
community and individual groups.
“SDCP’s support will also help our team at Pengwern
deliver our services and projects more easily and assist the different local
community groups to work together to bring benefits across the area.”
Denbighshire County Councillor for Llangollen
Graham Timms said: “This grant funding will bring huge benefits to the many
organisations that already exist in the Llangollen area.
“They have been offering help to our residents for
many years but the extra expertise and experience of SDCP will be invaluable in
supporting their work and this is a fantastic opportunity to expand the support
offered to our communities.
“There are particular problems in an area that is
largely rural, which leads to isolation for many, and in this current crisis it
is clear that many more people locally will be in need of help and the demand
for support will be much greater from all ages, many of whom have not needed
help before.
“It's my wish that this new opportunity will help
us all to rise to the challenge ahead and enable our communities to be much
stronger together.”
His fellow Denbighshire Councillor, Melvyn Mile,
added: “I’m delighted that SDCP have had this funding to extend their
operations into Llangollen, Llantysilio and Pentredwr because there are many
groups here who will benefit from their experience.
“That includes the Cittaslow Committee of
Llangollen Town Council who are in contact with many local groups who would
benefit from the kind of support SDCP have provided in Edeyrnion.”
SDCP Project Manager Margaret Sutherland said: “We
will be in Llangollen two days a week working with local organisations, many
previously unfunded, who have been doing amazing work with volunteers and we
will share our expertise, knowledge and skills to help these groups become more
resilient and sustainable for the longer term.
“We know Llangollen has similar needs to Edeyrnion
in terms of meals on wheels, services for the vulnerable and community
transport and one of the first steps will be to assist Citizens Advice
Denbighshire to extend its service in Llangollen from half a day to two days.”
Llangollen will also soon have additional community
transport based in the town complementing the existing services as well as a
lunch club and new social groups and SDCP plan to build partnerships with
existing groups in and around the town.
