THE Forest of Dean District Council has set up a Funding Team to co-ordinate applications for government and Lottery grants. Based in the Regeneration Services section, the all-women team is headed by Forest Regeneration Partnership manager Amanda Desmond.

"We were established in January this year to enable a more joined-up approach to be taken to external funding," she says. "It also offers a more streamlined service to organisations within the Forest of Dean who are wanting to access funding for their projects."

She is assisted by Funding Manager Cath Stenson, working mainly with voluntary and community groups in the Forest who are seeking assistance with fundraising.

"We can help develop their constitution, business planning and project development," she says. "We offer support and guidance in filling in the forms and collecting the supporting documentation."

In addition she has been involved in writing bids on behalf of the Forest Regeneration Partnership and has developed a bid to the Coalfields Regeneration Trust to establish a 'Community Chest' in the Forest. She also helped the Lydney Docks Partnership make applications and develop the funding strategy for the £1.7 million project to restore the docks.

Jane Jarman, familiar for her work in recent years with the Gloucestershire Rural Community Council, has joined the unit as SRB 6 Scheme Manager. The latest grant from the Single Regeneration Budget has been £1 million for the Forest of Dean Young People's Support Scheme.

"It will fund projects for young people's services in the district until 2005," she says. "I will be working with applicants to develop bids which meet the five strategic objects of the scheme.

"I will be managing the funding contracts, and working closely with the developing Youth Forum to encourage young people's involvement in the scheme. The aim is to give them a voice in their communities and an active role in the regeneration and development of services for young people in the Forest."

In six years up to this May, the Forest district has attracted £7 million in Lottery funding in the form of 183 awards. This has come from the distributing bodies as follows:

•Sport England £3,277,860

•Community Fund £1,842,580

•New Opportunities Fund £265,419

•Heritage Lottery Fund £1,147,213

•Arts Council £408,271

•Millennium £9,440

The average amount of Lottery money per head of population in the Forest of Dean is £89.31.

"This compares favourably with the other rural districts of Gloucestershire," says Cath Stenson. The comparable figures are: Stroud £88.95; Cotswolds £41.15 and Tewkesbury £25.41.

"We are still some way off the South West regional average of £119.90 and the national average of £119.08," she adds. "But if the Heritage Lottery Fund application for the Lydney Docks project is successful it will add to our figure.

"We have passed the first hurdle, but we still have a lot of development work to do before we get an official letter telling us we can actually begin to draw down the money.

"The New Opportunities Fund have also recently announced their Sustainable Communities and Green Spaces programme which offers significant opportunity for projects in the Forest to benefit from increased Lottery funding.

"We also continue to do very well with Awards for All, the Lottery funding for small grants of £500-£5,000 – having secured 40 of these awards over the past year with a success rate of around 70 per cent."