There is just over a week left to apply for a share of the £15,000 prize money won by Crickhowell in the Great British High Street competition.
Local people have until midnight on Friday, January 25th to submit an application for the money.
Corn Exchange Crickhowell Ltd (CECLtd), who ran the town’s successful bid, have published criteria which applications must meet in order to be considered for funding. Any ideas must promote community engagement in the town, improve the environment of the town centre, bring a better customer experience and/or use innovative digital solutions to benefit the town centre. They will also need to have a lasting impact on the town.
CECLtd’s Managing Director, Dean Christy, said: “We are excited by the proposals which are coming forward. We wanted to give everyone a chance to submit an application and seek financial support for it. We want the applicants to ‘own’ the idea and be committed to carrying it through for the benefit of Crickhowell in the long term.”
“Petitions have been distributed around town, and people are getting an opportunity to support the applications as they come forward – it is a real competition of ideas.” He said.
A committee of local people has been established to help CECLtd decide who should get the money. They have been selected from all sections of Crickhowell society with ages ranging from 16 to 70 plus.
The committee has been organised by Tim Jones, who ran the PR campaign to win the award. He said: “We wanted the committee to be broadly representative of the town as a whole and of the groups who work together to keep our High Street and town centre vibrant. We have made sure that all of the groups who form part of Crickhowell’s ‘story’ are represented, and special attention was paid to those groups who put in most to the volunteer day we held to prepare for the final. It was the story of these groups which so impressed the judges won the title of ‘Best High Street in Britain’ for Crickhowell.”
Once the deadline on January 25th has passed, the applications will be collated and passed to committee members, who will rate them against a scoring sheet which allocates points according to the competition criteria. A summary of the applications, omitting personal details will be published. If this scoring process fails to produce a clear winner or winners, a meeting of the committee will be organised to help CECLtd reach the final decision. CECLtd say they hope to have the final results in early February.
Details of how to apply for funding can be found on CECLtd’s website at www.cornexchangecrickhowell.co.uk/the-news