Application form for Environmental Sustainability Grants 2015-16

1 Name of Organisation: FRIENDS OF BRIGHTON GREENWAY

Name of Project if different from above: WILDFLOWER SEEDING and BIODIVERSITY ENHANCEMENT

2 Tel: Mobile Telephone: 07709 069486

Fax: Email: fobrightongreenway@outlook.com

3 Contact Name: please provide the names of two people who are knowledgeable about the application.

Main contact: ELSPETH BROADY, Secretary, FOBG

Second contact: MADELEINE CARY Treasurer, FOBG

If we need to speak to you about this application what is the best time to call you? Any time on mobile number.

4 Address: c/o 147 DITCHLING RISE, BN1 4QQ

Does your organisation usually meet at a different address, if so where:

Brighton Greenway, BN1 4ZB for work sessions

Church of Christ the King and St Luke’s Prestonville have been venues for ‘business’ meetings.

5 Bank Account Details: your organisation must have a bank account in its name with at least two signatories, who are not related to each other in any way, in order for your application to be eligible

Name of Account: FRIENDS OF BRIGHTON GREENWAY

Bank Address:

Sort Code:

Account Number:

Who should cheques be made payable to? FRIENDS OF BRIGHTON GREENWAY

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How many signatories are required to sign cheques? 2 out of 3 6 How much funding are you requesting from the Council? £761

Environmental Sustainability Grants are available up to £2,500

7 Please tick one or more of the following which best describes your organisation:

Informal group or organisation YESRegistered Charity , Charity Number……………………………………….. Company Limited by Guarantee, Company Number…………………….. Other, please describe …………………………………………………………..

8 How many people will be involved in the delivery of your environmental sustainability work?

Committee Members 5 Other volunteers up to 30Paid Staff: Full Time NONE Part Time NONE

If you are requesting core funding go to the next question

If your organisation is requesting funding for a specific project please explain how the management of this project links with your management committee, paid staff and volunteers etc.

We are a new volunteer group (formed in May 2015). We agreed broad objectives and activities at meetings held November 2014-May 2015. This is our first specific project, designed to build on the interest in Brighton Greenway developed during our work days. It will be the focus of our public work day(s) in Spring 2016 (February and March).

A member of the Committee organises the work days and takes guidance from those with relevant expertise. The Committee includes our qualified ecology consultant, John Patmore of Brighton & Hove Wildlife Forum, who initiated and specified this project. It has been discussed with BHCC Cityparks Ranger, Lindsay Cattanach.

Our membership receive regular e-mail updates and are invited to participate in work days and regular business meeting. Members include BHCC Council Officers (Planning, Cityparks, Neighbourhoods and Communities) as well as local developers QED, our ward Councillors, and representatives from local residents’ associations, as well as residents from neighbouring areas.

We will provide updates on this project at forthcoming business meetings (planned for November 2015, February 2016, March 2016), and review it at our Annual General Meeting in May 2016. We will also post reports on our website and inform the wider public through Twitter.

We have no paid staff.

9 How do you safeguard / manage your money?Briefly describe your financial systems and procedures

Our bank account is managed day-to-day by our Treasurer, experienced in managing a similar community group account (LRSP).

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We have three signatories to our account, two of whom must sign any cheques.We report on our projects at regular meetings of all members.We will present accounts for oversight at our Annual General Meeting.

10 When will your intended activities take place?If you are applying for project funding please complete

Start date for the proposed work FEBRUARY 2016 End date for the proposed work MARCH 2016

11 Where will the work take place: Grants can only be awarded to support activities for the wider benefit of residents in Brighton & Hove

The work will take place on the Brighton Greenway (Northern Section), a Local Wildlife Site (LWS) since 1992. The site is owned by Sainsbury’s, but is managed by lease under a Section 106 Planning Condition by Brighton & Hove City Council and has full public right of access.

12 Does your work include services to Brighton & Hove City Council tenants / leaseholders or take place on council estates?

NO

13 How many people will benefit from your intended activity? Approx 500+How have you estimated this figure?

We have a FOBG members list of 45 people.

All users of Brighton Greenway will benefit from this project. There are no figures for the footfall, but a rough estimate based on observation throughout the day would suggest currently around 150-200 regular users. This is likely to increase with the opening of the southern section of Brighton Greenway.

Beneficiaries also include residents and community groups (Friends Centre, Brighton Housing Trust) in the immediate vicinity: approximately 300

Local wildlife will also benefit as this project seeks to enhance the natural habitat into the centre of Brighton.

14 Which one of the Environmental Sustainability Grants criteria 1-6 does your application best fit?

Most obviously, 2. Improve the natural environment and promote access to and understanding of biodiversity.

Clearly, there are spin-offs from this to do with: 6. Community capacity building, as FOBG volunteers build their skills in looking after an urban LWS.

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5. Promoting walking, as this project contributes to making Brighton Greenway a more attractive and interesting urban walking route.

This is particularly significant as the final section of Brighton Greenway (south section, from Stroudley Road to Brighton Station) should open soon, and encourage residents from areas north of Preston Circus to use the Greenway as a pedestrian route into the centre.

15 What does your organisation / project do? Please write in your own words the purpose of your organisation Please also answer either 16(a) or 16(b)

FOBG is a volunteer group whose aim is to enhance the environment on Brighton Greenway to ensure that it is maintained as a safe and attractive pedestrian walkway and an effective wildlife corridor, and that its unique railway heritage is recognised.

We aim to promote the involvement of local people in caring for this urban green space through regular work days, meetings, walks, talks and information (e.g. website etc.).

16(a)

16(b) If you want project funding describe the nature of this work and what you want project funding for: NB: Question 18 should be completed as your project’s income & expenditure

We are seeking funding for a wildflower seeding project to enhance Brighton Greenway. This LWS (since 1992) was opened for public access in 2011. The original landscaping plan of 2008 included wildflower seeding, but since then, there has been little consistent maintenance and custodianship of the area, and much of the original planting has been overgrown.

Our plan is to bring back native wildflowers/grass to the areas most crucial to maintaining the LWS wildlife corridor; these areas, indicated below, are in the northern east-side sections immediately after the New England iron bridge and represent approx. 1,500m2. This leaves the other areas nearer the Boston St entrance and up to Stroudley Rd for more recreational use.

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Small areas of ‘example’ planting are already taking place in Autumn 2015, self-funded by Friends of Brighton Greenway, in order to build local interest and a solid volunteer foundation for the planned wildflower planting of the wider area in early Spring 2016.

We also intend to mount an ‘outdoor poster’ display giving information about the wildflower project and the ecology of Brighton Greenway. These posters will be mounted in tamper and weather proof frames on the wire fence near the New England iron bridge in such a way as to not infringe any planning

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regulations. Brighton and Hove’s Wildlife Forum (BHWF) is providing expert ecological advice pro bono to support this.

We will also organise talks and presentations on the wildflower project (a) as part of FOBG meetings and (b) for local community groups. We are building/have built up links with community groups in the area (e.g. Prestonville Community Association, Ditchling Rise and Area Residents’ Association, North Laine Community Association, Brighton Housing Trust and Friends First) as well as the local St Bartholomew’s Primary School, and this project would be a focus for strengthening these links. Given our aim to monitor habitat development using nationally approved criteria, this project could provide research opportunities for local schools and universities.

Appropriate ongoing maintenance of the wildflower area will be defined as part of our strategic plan to be developed at our business meetings in the course of 2015-6.

17 How will your organisation / project ensure activities are open to participation from, and wider benefit to, all sections of the community?

In addition, how will your organisation meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 in terms of access, employment including volunteers and the delivery of your service. For information on what these requirements are please see our Resources Factsheet at www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/communitygrants or contact the Annual Grants Programme Officer.

Our constitution sets out explicitly our commitment to participation open to all.We typically organise our work days on Sunday afternoons to ensure that working people/people with families are not excluded from our activities.

In organising activities at a work session, there are always a range of tasks appropriate to different levels of skill and capacity to ensure that all have an opportunity to contribute.

There is access to Brighton Greenway for those with limited mobility from Boston Street or Stroudley Road. We organise our meetings at venues where access is good (CCK and St Luke’s Prestonville) and where there is sensitivity to access requirements.

We advertise our work days to our e-mail membership list, but also to a wider public through Twitter and our website, emphasising that all are welcome. For specific events, we also publicise through posters and door-to-door leafletting where appropriate to ensure that immediate neighbours know about our activities.

We will be bringing the 2010 Equality Act for discussion at our next ‘business’ meeting.

We do not ‘deliver a service’ and we do not employ any staff.

18 How will you know how successful your organisation / project has been?You will have to submit a short report to the Communities, Equality & Third Sector Team at the end of the financial year or when your project is over. Please briefly

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explain the monitoring you will be using to assess your success nb. visit the council’s website for suggested ‘outcome measures’ at http://corporateplan.brighton-hove.gov.uk

We will monitor the project by:

1) auditing the development of wildflowers/grasses in the area and establishing a monitoring regime with guidance from BHWF (following JNCC and Natural England recommendations in England 2020 Biodiversity Strategy)

2) recording of the number of volunteers involved3) recording the number of events with a focus on the wildflower area4) asking volunteers to comment on our activities5) asking users of Brighton Greenway to comment on the development of the

wildflower area.

One of the challenges we will face in demonstrating a successful outcome within the financial year is that the full impact of wildflower seeding will not be seen until 15 months after seeding, i.e. growing season 2017.

19 Where will your money come from in the year from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016?(a) If you are requesting core funding please insert your organisational income & expenditure forecast for 2015-16 below(b) If you are requesting project funding please insert your project income & expenditure forecast for 2015-16 below and submit the additional attachments required at question 19

INCOME (£) for this projectBrighton & Hove City Council Environmental Sustainability Grant(applied for)

£761

Other grants (confirmed)Other grants (not yet confirmed)Sale of goods or servicesSubscriptions / membership feesOther Income (please state):

Total anticipated income for this project for the period 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016

761

This should be the same as at question 6

EXPENDITURE (£)Salaries / Wages / Staff Recruitment 0Volunteer Costs (expenses, training, etc) 0Venue Costs (rent, heating, lighting, etc) 0General Running Costs (post, phone, insurance, etc) 0Other Costs (eg. purchase of seeds, compost or equipment):

761

Seeds = £465. 4 x A1 poster cases @£50 + VAT/delivery = £240. 4 x A1 laminated posters + VAT/delivery = £56.Total anticipated expenditure on this project for the 761

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period 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016

Total anticipated surplus/deficit on this project for the period 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016 (A minus B)

+ / 0-

Please note: a surplus means that you expect to raise more money than you need ie. A is bigger than B. A deficit means that your committed expenditure exceeds the amount of money you think you are going to receive ie. B is bigger than A.

Does your organisation have any reserves?(Financial reserves can be one of three types. General Free Reserves can be used to pay for any activity that furthers your organisation’s aims and objectives. Restricted Reserves are monies that must only be spent on a specific activity eg. a grant given to buy a photocopier. Designated Reserves are made when your organisation decides to put money aside for a later purpose, eg. for children to attend a major sports event, but may later choose to use the money for a different purpose, eg. if the event is cancelled):

General Free Reserves £ 55.37Designated Reserves £Restricted Reserves £Total Monies Currently at Bank £ 55.37

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20 You must attach the following documents.

(i) All applicants please attach a copy of your organisation’s: Constitution or set of rules (signed on the front page by the Chair or a

member of your management committee if you do not have the original copy) Most recent bank statement or paying-in slip: this must include all three

of the following: account number, sort code and name of the account eg. Anytown Sustainability Group

2 quotes for hire or purchase of equipment / materials if relevant

(ii) If your organisation is requesting core funding please also attach copy of your organisation’s:

Income & expenditure 2014-15 if applicable:Attached: Not applicable:

(iii) If your organisation is requesting project funding please also attach copy of your:

Project income & expenditure 2015-16 if applicable. Attached: Not applicable:

Total organisational income & expenditure 2014-15We cannot produce this as we were only formed in May 2015

Forecast total organisational income & expenditure 1 April 2015 – 31 March 2016

DECLARATIONTwo signatures are required (one must be a member of the management committee)Declaration: I confirm that the information provided is true and that my organisation has charitable aims and objectives and is a not-for-profit organisation:

Signed: Date:

Position in Organisation:

Signed: Date:

Position in Organisation:

* The information you have provided will be used for the administration of discretionary grant applications and awards and for statistical analysis purposes. The Council is registered under the Data Protection Act 1998 for these purposes. We may check information that you provide, or information provided by a third party, with other information we hold, to check the accuracy of information and to protect public funds in

other ways, as permitted by law. We may also share this information with other bodies administering public funds for these purposes. We will not disclose information about you to anyone, unless the law permits us to.

The Council is the Data Controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998. If you want to know more about the information we have about you, or the way we use your information, please write to the

Council's Data Protection Officer, Kings House, Grand Avenue, Hove

DEADLINE FOR RETURN OF FORMS:

1 May 2015 ( for activities from July 2015 to March 2016)17 July 2015 (for activities from October 2015 to March 2016)

02 October 2015 (for activities from January 2016 to March 2016)

To: Brighton & Hove City Council, Communities, Equality & Third Sector Team, Room 415A, Kings House, Grand Avenue, Hove, BN3 2LS

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Friends of Brighton Greenway (FOBG) Constitution

1. LocationThe ‘Brighton Greenway’ refers to the Northern Greenway (SNCI), from New England Road to Stroudley Road; the Northern Open Space (Conservation) north of New England Road, and the Southern Greenway (SNCI) from Stroudley Road to Brighton Station Concourse. These areas are delineated on the New England Quarter Design Specification of 2001, and in the case of the first two, in the Landscaping Management Plan of November 2009.

2. AimsThe aims of Friends of Brighton Greenway are to:a) promote practical environmental enhancement works at Brighton Greenway, especially by

volunteers, for the benefit of our community, visitors and wildlife.b) promote the engagement of the local community with Brighton Greenway through a range of

environmental and cultural activitiesc) campaign for improved amenities at Brighton Greenwayd) work in partnership with all stakeholders and in particular, local groups and businesses to achieve

these aims.

3. ActivitiesTo fulfil these aims, Friends of Brighton Greenway will:a) undertake practical environmental works and other activities as they see fit.b) encourage partnerships with other like-minded groups to undertake such works.c) raise money/funding when necessary by means of awards, grants and sponsorship for carrying out

the aims of the groupd) publicise their activities and achievements.

4. MembershipMembership shall be open to anyone who supports the aims of the group and who has supplied contact details to the Secretary. All members must agree to Brighton Greenway’s constitution and any Guidelines for Volunteers. A list of members will be kept by the Secretary in accordance with Data Protection Act 1998.

5. Equal OpportunitiesFriends of Brighton Greenway aims to ensure that everyone can feel welcome and safe at events it organises. It will not discriminate on the grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic or national origin, sexuality, disability, religious or political belief, marital status or age. Any offensive behaviour, including racist, sexist or inflammatory remarks, will be challenged. Anyone behaving in an offensive way or breaking the equal opportunities policy may be asked not to attend further meetings and/or to resign from the group.

6. MeetingsThe aim in all meetings will be to identify a consensus for any action. If a consensus cannot be reached a vote will be taken and a decision will be made by a simple majority of members present. If the number of votes cast on each side are equal, the chair of the meeting shall have an additional casting vote.

General meetings will be open to all members and organised by the committee at least once every 3 months or more often if necessary. All members will be informed by e-mail of a meeting at least 10 days in advance. The quorum for General meetings will be 5 members.

An Annual General Meeting will be held each year (within 15 months of the previous AGM) to review the group’s activities and discuss its policies and administration. All members will be entitled to attend

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and will be notified by e-mail at least 10 days before the meeting. The quorum for the AGM will be 10% of the membership or 8 members, whichever is greater.At the AGM:

A report of the work of Friends of Brighton Greenway over the previous year will be presented.

Any accounts of Friends of Brighton Greenway will be presented. The officers and committee for the next year will be elected. Outline plans for the forthcoming year will be discussed.

7. CommitteeA Committee will be elected at the Annual General Meeting in order to conduct the group’s day-to-day administration. It will meet as necessary and not less than three times a year, and will report to general meetings of members.

The Committee will consist of up to 8 members and will include the following officers: Chair: responsible for chairing general and committee meetings. Secretary: responsible for taking minutes and notes, distributing papers and maintaining

general records. Membership Secretary (may be combined with role of Secretary): responsible for keeping

records of members in line with Data Protection Act 1998 Treasurer: responsible for maintaining accounts.

If a Committee of more than 3 has been elected, but no nominee has been found for any one of the three officer posts, then the Committee may decide to allocate the responsibilities of this role among themselves.Nominations for the committee may be made to the Secretary at or before the AGM. Any committee member not attending a committee meeting without apology for six months may be contacted by the committee and asked to resign. In the event of an officer standing down during the year, a replacement will be sought for election by the next General Meeting of members.

8. FinancesAccounts will be kept by the Treasurer and will be presented for approval at the Annual General Meeting.A bank account may be set up on behalf of Friends of the Greenway: three signatories will be nominated by the Committee (one to be the Treasurer) and cheques should be signed by any two. Money raised by or on behalf of Friends of the Greenway should only be used to further the aims of the group as specified above in 1.

9. Amending the constitutionThis constitution may be altered at the Annual General Meeting or at an Extraordinary General Meeting called for this purpose and will be by consent of a majority of members attending. Any proposal to amend the constitution must be circulated by the Secretary with notice of the meeting.

10. DissolutionIf a meeting, by simple majority, decides to close down the group, it must call a Special General Meeting to do so. Notice and conduct of this meeting will be as for an AGM. The sole business will be to dissolve the group. In the case of dissolution, all remaining money and other assets, once outstanding debts have been paid, will be donated to a local charitable organisation to be agreed at the meeting which agrees the dissolution.

This constitution was agreed at the Inaugural AGM meeting on 18th May 2015.

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Friends of Brighton Greenway May 2015 - April 2016 INDICATIVE BUDGET

Friends of Brighton Greenway May 2015 - April 2016

PLANNED GENERAL EXPENDITUREGeneral publicity and communications (for community events, meetings etc) 50Insurance with The Conservation Volunteers 194.63TOTAL 244.63

INCOMEDonation 250TOTAL 250

WILD FLOWER SEEDING PROJECT COSTSWildflower seeds 'Economy seed mix for chalk soils w wild orchids' 4654 x A1 poster cases 2404 x outdoor A1 posters 56TOTAL 761

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TWO QUOTES FOR WILD FLOWER SEEDS FOR 1,500m2

Our preferred supplier would be Wild Flower Lawns and Meadows, as this supplier is based in Sussex and has 20 years’ experience of developing wild flower areas in our area.

Really Wild Flowers advises 4g per m2, so 6000g or 60 x 100g units.

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TWO QUOTES FOR POSTER CASES

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TWO QUOTES FOR POSTER PRINTING

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