The money held for LLRA by the County Council is secure, and dedicated to our use. It cannot be spent elsewhere for many years to come, and the capital sum is earning interest every year.
There are restrictions on how we can use it – and it should be remembered that it was provided at the outset as the demolition of the education building and the sale of the site to Tanglewood deprived LLRA of a meeting place, where we could hold meetings and host events.
We hope at the AGM to be able to discuss this further, and offer suggestions for how we move forward. But we want to be absolutely sure that it is spent in a way that will provide lasting and memorable benefit to the community – it would be easy to spend it on a number of relatively minor works that will need renewing, but we’re looking at, and talking about, options that would give the community a lasting benefit.
Really happy to see that the LLRA has established its own website. What plans have been proposed for the community money?
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the feedback. After the May/June 2017 AGM (Date TBC) and with a strengthened LLRA committee we should be able to speak with one voice on the subject of community money and explain the approach the LLRA will adopt.
Speaking in a purely personal capacity, post the AGM I would like to see an LLRA sub-committee set up to engage with the Long Leys community about what is wanted; from what I have seen, there have been a few one line suggestions on spend but none of them have a detailed proposal, project sponsor or any form of evaluation on the long term benefits delivered by the project to the community. Chris Taylor is writing a broader explanation for the website of how any projects could be evaluated; this will be published in a week or so and will no doubt stimulate some debate.
Kind regards
Jon