£500,000 funding to help fight poverty
Llangollen is to share in a £500,000 lottery bonanza won by a community charity to fight rural poverty in Denbighshire’s Dee Valley.
The money from the Big Lottery Fund will help extend the reach of Corwen-based South Denbighshire Community Partnership to local organisations in Llangollen and its surrounding area and will be spread over four years to autumn 2024.
A launch at Pentredwr Community Centre was attended by Clwyd South AM Ken Skates, the Welsh Government Economy Minister, who said: “This is a wonderful boost for the Llangollen area which has its share of rural poverty and the issues of isolation, particularly among the elderly and vulnerable.
In the last three years the partnership has built up a wide portfolio of services including meals-on-wheels, a lunch club, community transport, green energy generation, grocery and prescription delivery – even the delivery vehicles are electric.
It has also worked closely with Citizens Advice Denbighshire to help local people claim almost half a million pounds in benefits in the last six months, £347,000 since lockdown started in March.
Community Engagement Officer Sally Lloyd Davies said: “We are working with and co-ordinating existing groups and organisations in the Llangollen area which have a similar agenda to ours.
Expertise
“It means they can make use of the expertise we have gained in recent years in improving the lives of the vulnerable, the isolated and those in poverty.
“There are some fantastic local groups across the Llangollen area and they’re doing great work and this grant boost will enable us to work together in the future.”
Denbighshire county councillor for Llangollen, Graham Timms, said: “This grant funding will bring huge benefits to the many organisations that already exist in the Llangollen area
“They have been offering help to our residents for many years but the extra expertise and experience of the partnership will be invaluable in supporting their work and this is a fantastic opportunity to expand the support offered to our communities.
“There are particular problems in an area that is largely rural, which leads to isolation for many, and in this current crisis it is clear that many more people locally will be in need of help and the demand for support will be much greater from all ages, many of whom have not needed help before.
Llangollen will also soon have additional community transport based in the town complementing the existing services as well as a lunch club and new social groups .
