update of Sunday’s post
Milestone Day for the New
Memorial Hall:
Less than £100,000 to go.
Today we have not one but two great pieces of news. The first is that confirmation has been announced of a massive £41,653 grant from the Sustainable Development Fund (Peak District National Park Authority) and the second is that leaves only £86,032 to raise. The committee have known about the grant for a couple of weeks but couldn’t announce it until today. They would like to say a special thank you to the Peak District National Park. Following the Community Visit in January, they have been instrumental in demonstrating their support for our new hall by helping and advising us. This has given the committee a tremendous boost.
This grant now means that the fund for the New Memorial Hall tops £781,768.
What an achievement for a small community the size of Parwich and its surrounding villages. This amounts to approximately £1,000 for every man woman and child.
Although the end is in sight it’s imperative that we don’t stop now. Every £10 that we can raise will make a big difference – it will help to equip the spacious kitchen designed particularly with our important Oddfellows lunch in mind but will also let us hold all those milestone celebrations like birthdays and weddings. It will help towards the new meeting room where we can hold all our current meetings such as the History Society and Horticultural Society as well as all those extra things that the survey indicated people wanted to do – art groups, talks, and just general get togethers. So please continue with your efforts for that last £86,000.
The village has worked hard to make its contribution but it was always acknowledged that an amount as large as this could not come from the village alone, so true to its promise, the Committee and the funding group particularly, have sourced every contact and available grant (with hopefully more in the pipeline) Contributions have come from village fundraising, Project Parwich, individuals, local politicians, local and national grant sources. All have been impressed by our small communities’ big dream.
That new hall, talked about for years, voted for five years ago and two years in the planning, is now going to be a reality that we can all use and enjoy.
PARWICH.ORG 
Here is the Peak Park Press Release confirming our grant for the Memorial Hall:
PR 60
01 July 2009
Grants help Peak District go green
The Peak District Sustainable Development Fund is giving thousands of pounds to community groups and businesses to develop renewable energy, organic gardening, energy efficiency and wildlife projects.
Its recent grants include:
– £41,600 to Parwich Memorial Hall Committee to help develop its new village hall with renewable energy technology, including a ground source heat pump, solar thermal panels and rain-water harvesting
– £12,500 to the South Yorkshire Energy Centre, to help train Peak District groups in energy efficiency and conservation for older buildings, many of which are listed – particularly houses, but also community halls and small business premises
– £11,000 to Staffordshire Wildlife Trust to protect riverbanks on the River Churnet, controlling erosion and improving wildlife habitats – including possible engineered log-jams – near Severn Trent Water’s visitor centre at Tittesworth Reservoir
– £7,100 to Peak Organics, an allotment-based project run by JJM Learning, to run organic gardening workshops for people to learn how to do it at home
£1,200 to Gradbach Youth Hostel, to investigate energy-saving measures and renewable energy schemes for three old mill buildings. It is also assessing hydro-power potential at the site – Gradbach aims to become a ‘Green Beacon’ hostel to lead the way for other YHA properties.
The Fund channels nearly £200,000 a year from the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs into environmental, educational and social projects across the Peak District. Its panel of local independent assessors decides on larger grant applications four times a year.
The Peak District National Park Authority, which manages the Fund, has just appointed a new panel chair, Harry Bowell, and deputy chair, Cllr Tracy Critchlow.
Mr Bowell said:
The Authority thanked previous panel leaders Anne Ashe and John Herbert.
To find out about the Sustainable Development Fund, or get general advice on any sustainable development project, go to http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/sdf or call 01629 816312.