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Allotment windfall for aspiring gardeners

Screen Shot 2016-08-25 at 10.06.53A COMMUNITY group in Llwynhendy has benefitted form a grant from The Big Lottery Fund to the tune of £4,796, which was presented to them by the Chairman of the Llanelli Rural Council, Steven Donoghue, on Tuesday (Aug 2) at the community allotments in Llwynhendy. 

Speaking about the benefits of the work carried out by the Llwynhendy Families Taking Action group’s work in the community, Mr. Donoghue said:

“It is a great use of space. It is a valuable asset for the community.

“This is a meeting point and a facility where children and adults in the community can come. They can grow produce in an area which has a lot of depravation. This is the first step in a much larger programme, and I would like to see more projects like this in Llanelli. We, the Rural Council, have Community Development Grants of £30,000 per year and the Council is keen to support organisations. We meet once a year and allocate money from that pot. We are keen to hear from anyone who wishes to apply.”

Creative trainers from the organisation ‘Dynamix’, Carys Lovering and Liam Elton, said, “We are doing a consultation looking to find out what the community wants. We want to find out what changes they would like to see. We have activities to find out what is working and what isn’t working. We are a social enterprise running consultations. If you make things fun where people can get involved in the consultation, it helps.”

Chris Johns from Building Communities Trust said: “People from Llwynhendy have decided to use today‘s event to find out what the priorities are for the community. It is a consultation event as well as an open day. The ideas that come out of this m a y go forward. We are running the consultations in different areas. We are very flexible and anything that is fundable under charitable law is fine, but we also want to make use of what already exists. This is a fantastic example of what community groups can do.”

Lyndy Jane Butler of Llwynhendy Families Taking Action said: “This is a great day for us. The children and adults have all worked very hard. We have a three year old who has carried gallons of water. There is still a lot of work to be done here and we are hoping people will take up the offer of an allotment. We were charging £50 per year but at the moment they are free. We have created an area for the children to play and we have a lot of older people who come and give us advice, especially on growing things. We have a lot of community participation here , including from the Llys Caradog Children’s Centre. We are very grateful to the Big Lottery Fund for their generous grant, which will enable us to do a lot more.”

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