A new fund to help community projects in towns and villages across Nottinghamshire has been oversubscribed by more than £7m.

The Supporting Local Communities fund (SLC), previously known as the Local Improvement Scheme, has a £500,000 pot to fund heritage, environmental and conservation projects.

Nottinghamshire County Council's Environment and Sustainability committee chairman Councillor Jim Creamer commented: "We have been inundated with requests for funding so we introduced a new scoring system for this year's applicants.


"We looked at factors like levels of deprivation, the amount of external funding and voluntary hours available as well as the opportunity for increased community cohesion and we believe this is a much fairer system for distributing funds."

Among the schemes given the go ahead from April 1 are creating a community garden and allotment at St Mary's Gardens in Hawtonville, the creation of a new storage facility at Edwinstowe Cricket Club, refurbishment works at Mansfield Woodhouse Heritage Centre, refurbishment works at the shopping area at Honeywood Gardens Estate in Carlton and providing a new skatepark in Ollerton.

(CD/JP)