Boost for projects

NEARLY £5,500 has been pledged by Dereham town councillors in grants to boost local projects from a trail-blazing medical machine to repairing the parish church clock.

NEARLY £5,500 has been pledged by Dereham town councillors in grants to boost local projects from a trail-blazing medical machine to repairing the parish church clock.

The biggest hand-out agreed by the finance and resources committee was for the running costs of the Citizens' Advice Bureau.

The Dereham Festival - being staged this May - was given £320, plus councillors agreed to give “in kind” support for the use of the Assembly Rooms and Memorial Hall for events.

Dereham Band - which is hoping to buy the land at Rash's Green where its base stands - was given a total of £650, including £150 towards its costs for Dereham Festival.

Dereham Meeting Point will get

a £500 grant towards a

“well-being room” which is

being created in conjunction with the PCT and social services and will include an innovative machine for monitoring blood pressure or ecgs and will be the first unit of of its kind in England to have one.

Toftwood Scouts will be given £750 towards new windows and doors at its HQ, which is also used by other community groups.

Members agreed on a £250 grant for the town's boxing club for new equipment and Michael Fanthorpe said it was a benefit to a lot of youngsters. But Timothy Birt

said: “Boxing is the only sport where the objective is personal injury.”

A £750 grant will go towards restoring the parish church clock and Dereham and District Team Minstry will get £100 towards website development.

Amounts of £50 will go to the East Anglian Air Ambulance, Norfolk Accident and Rescue Service and the Norfolk and Norwich Association for the Blind.