APHAx Thank You

The APHAx Committee hosted a thank you event in the Public Hall on Wednesday evening. The final (Phase 3) bid for Big Lottery Funding has just been submitted and the Committee wished to thank those who had been instrumental in getting this far with the project.

APHAx Chairman Roland Hall briefly described the history of the project, from the Parish Plans of 2005 and 2010, to the first meetings of APHEx (as it was originally) in February 2013. Then the first stages of the Big Lottery Fund application plans supported by HCA funding before the stage 2 plans supported by a development grant from the BLF.

A few days ago the Stage 3 application was submitted – all the indications are that this is likely to be successful, although the decision might not be forthcoming until March 2016.

The list of people and organisations to be thanked was a long one

• Homes and Communities Agency
• Stephen Wright (Grant Funding Skills)
• Audlem Parish Council
• Hankelow and Buerton Parish Councils
• Martin Greenwood of Bower Edleston Architects
• Audlem and District Community Action
• Audlem Special Events team
• Audlem Bowling Club
• Trustees of Audlem Tree House
• Sheila Webster (artist)
• Debbie Caine (artist)
• Martyn Measures of Hibberts
• Kate Parkes
• Ralph Warburton and Rodney Cottrell
• and, above all, Geoff and Olive Stretch

Frank Gillies described the various bid documents which the team had prepared in the course of the project, with some jaw-dropping statistics of the actual numbers of words used in the documents.

JohnTilling described how the total bid value of over £707,000 was made up and where the £100,000 contribution (of which nearly £80,000 has been given or promised) from the community was coming from.

Some of the funding contributors were able to present actual cash (or in one case chocolate replica cash – you just can't trust these people from Hankelow) to the APHAx project on the night, as shown in the photos.

And now we just wait for the final decision from the Big Lottery Fund – Watch This Space!

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