Junction Arts, based in Chesterfield, work across Chesterfield, Bolsover and North East Derbyshire and are set to be granted £15,200 of the funding.

Last year more than 143,000 people benefited from the work by the groups including children in care, learning disabled and disabled people of all ages, people at risk of rural isolation or without transport, those on low incomes and residents living in care homes.

Councillor Barry Lewis, Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Leadership, Culture and Tourism for Derbyshire County Council, said:-

“We’re delighted to be able to support these valuable arts groups for the coming year and recognise the enormous benefits they bring to a wide range of people in our communities.

“It can be difficult for many people to access arts and culture, music, film and live performances because of where they live or their circumstances, but these groups make it possible and open up new opportunities to thousands of people.”

Live and Local is a rural and community touring scheme which was set up in Derbyshire in 2002 to deliver high quality, professional arts performances in village halls and other community venues that will also be covering the whole of Derbyshire including Chesterfield.

If approved, a total of 2,000 action grants of £500 each would be offered up until 31 January 2020 to local organisations with plans and projects that would benefit their local community.

A further £500,000 could also be made available for projects which aim to improve health and encourage physical activity.

The Cabinet will consider the proposals at a meeting on Thursday 5 April.

Councillor Barry Lewis, Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Leadership, Culture and Tourism at Derbyshire County Council, said:-

“Making grants available to local community projects and groups is one of the clear commitments we have made in our Council Plan.

“If approved, the money would give Derbyshire residents the support and the freedom to bring real and lasting benefits to the area where they live. It would help to provide a whole range of opportunities which really do bring people together through activity and make our county a safer, healthier place to live.”

• Youth Activity Grants would be available to help 11 to 19-year-olds by setting up projects like youth clubs and arts and music schemes, as helping young people to enhance their entrepreneurial and employment skills.
• A number of enhanced youth activity grants would be available for work which helps vulnerable young people at risk of sexual exploitation or radicalisation, or who are struggling to find jobs and training opportunities.
• Community Safety Grants would aim to help Derbyshire people to reduce the fear of crime in their communities, address the causes of anti-social behaviour, combat the effects of alcohol and drug abuse and help raise awareness of rogue traders, online fraud and scams.
• Community Action Grants would enable residents’ groups to give their area a boost by setting up new clubs, arranging events like fetes and protecting the local environment.
• Physical Activity grants would get communities moving together by funding innovative ways of improving access to sport and exercise

If proposals are approved by Cabinet next week, in addition to the 2,000 small grants of up to £500, medium grants of up to £5,000 would also be available to new projects which have strong local support and can be shown to be able to bring significant community benefits.

Large grants of up to £10,000 would be offered to a new project which can be shown to provide long-term benefits and which may promote two or more of the scheme’s four themes − youth activity, community action, community safety and physical activity.

Decisions for the awarding of grants would be made by a panel with a detailed knowledge of youth, community and physical activity projects which are already available across the county.

Councillor Lewis said:-

“If Cabinet approves the proposals, we would want groups of all kinds to take advantage of this offer over the next two years. This money would be additional to other funding pots which our elected members can offer to projects and causes in their area.

“The people who understand the needs of their communities best of all are those who live there and who already volunteer to provide and organise activities there. If approved, they could use these grants to help make a real difference which will benefit others for many years to come.”

Subject to Cabinet approval the council propose to offer:

• 750 Youth Activity Grants
• 500 Community Safety Grants
• 375 Community Activity Grants
• 375 Physical Activity and Sport Grants

Derbyshire groups, organisations, charities and residents can sign up to an email newsletter for updates about the scheme at www.derbyshire.gov.uk/action

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has announced on Monday 26 March that England-wide authorities are to receive a share of £100m to help repair potholes and protect roads from future severe weather.

The County Council are to get £2,035,992. This will bring the total spend on fixing Derbyshire’s potholes between now and March 2019 to more than £6m − three times the amount spent during the previous 12 months.

In December 2017 the number of potholes listed for repair had fallen to 120 but by the beginning of March the number had risen to over 3,000. This increase is due to some of the worst winter weather for a decade as more are found during inspections and are reported by the public.

In response Derbyshire County Council announced they were spending £4m on repairing potholes − double compared to the previous year.

The council have already set on nine extra gangs of roadworkers to support the 12 usual teams to fix potholes and carry out other road repairs such as wider areas of patching.

This additional £2m will enable more of this work to be done and more quickly.

Councillor Simon Spencer, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Infrastructure at Derbyshire County Council, said:-

“We had made giant strides to decrease the backlog of potholes on the 3,500 miles of road that we look after reducing numbers by 80% during 2017.

“However, over the last few weeks we’ve experienced the worst sustained period of winter weather for the past 10 years. The constant freezing and thawing, huge amounts of rainfall and blankets of heavy snow have caused our roads to crack which has resulted in a significant rise in the number of potholes and carriageway deterioration.”

Councillor Spencer added:-

“We welcome this extra Government cash on top of the additional funding we have already committed and we will continue to step up our inspections and target our resources where they are most needed. I’d also encourage the public to report potholes so we can feed this into our extra gangs for them to carry out repairs.”

In addition to their pothole budget they are already spending nearly £16m patching, surface dressing and resurfacing the county’s roads and fixing drains and gullies.

And the council are investing an extra £6m on road maintenance to keep on top of highway defects as part of their pledge to keep roads safe and reliable for road users.

Potholes can be reported at www.derbyshire.gov.uk/reportit (opens in a new window)

Once reported potholes − which in line with national guidance must be at least 40mm deep on the road or 20mm on a footpath − are prioritised for repair depending on the risk they pose to road and footpath users.

Factors that determine how quickly a pothole is fixed include location, depth, size and the speed limit of the road. Potholes categorised in most urgent need of repair will be filled within a maximum of 32 hours − usually quicker. Less urgent ones are fixed between five and 28 days after being reported.