Amersham is about to Decide! Come to our voting event to pick your favourite scheme
There’s not long now for Amersham residents to cast their votes and choose which local project should get the most Buckinghamshire County Council funding from the Amersham Local Area Forum.
It’s all part of Amersham Decides – a local ‘Have Your Say’ event where Amersham residents vote for their favourite of four shortlisted community schemes, each of whom get a chunk of £9,000. The one with the most votes gets the most money – £4,000 – and second, third and fourth place get £2,500, £1,500 and £1000 respectively.
There’s only a week or so left now to have a say, with voting closing on Friday 27 July.
If you’ve not yet heard of ‘Amersham Decides’ there’s no better way to find out more about the four finalists than to come down to the big Amersham Decides event on Tuesday 24 July. It takes place at:
St Michaels & All Angels Church (70, Sycamore Rd, Amersham HP6 5DR) from 10:00am – 4:00pm.
Each of the four finalists will have stands where you can find out what each project is all about, before choosing your favourite and casting your vote.
The four shortlisted projects are:
Amersham Mobile Museum
With this funding, the Amersham Museum Bus will create a mobile exhibition, showcasing mixed-media work around Amersham in the 20th Century. The bus will reach vulnerable and isolated people both at home and at community events, giving them a way to enjoy the exhibition too.
Old Amersham Memorial Gardens
Your vote could help the local community, including schools, volunteers and youth groups to join forces to develop an area of the Old Amersham Memorial Gardens into a sensory garden. With this funding, the project will be able to create an attractive sensory garden where visitors will feel welcome and comforted.
Savvy E-Safety
This fantastic scheme has been trialled in other parts of the county and now the team wants your vote to set up these courses in Amersham! The project sees local tech-savvy young people pair up with their older peers to teach them how to stay safe online and how to avoid falling victim to online scams.
Citizens Advice Service
This is a home-visiting service from Amersham Citizens Advice. Your vote means the advice service can reach particularly isolated and vulnerable users and give them valuable advice on anything from money matters to community acitivities, reducing isolation and improving well-being.
Councillor Gareth Williams chairs the Amersham Local Forum which set up the scheme. He said:
“This is a brilliant chance to find out all you need to know about our four finalists and to cast your vote. Amersham Decides is a great project for the town – all four of our very worthy finalists will each get some valuable funding and its local people themselves who get to choose how much.
“It’s exactly what our Local Area Forums are here for – to allow local people to directly choose how money is spent in their local area. I’m looking forward to seeing how our local residents voted!”
Gareth Williams has been out and about in the Amersham community telling people about Amersham Decides and visiting local schools where students have found out more about the projects and have cast their votes.
- You can find out more about Amersham Decides and vote online at www.amershamdecides.co.uk
- Voting closes on Friday 27 July
- Amersham Decides is being run by the Amersham Local Area Forum. Local Area Forums are set up by Buckinghamshire County Council to allow local people to directly have a say on how county council services are delivered and how money should be spent in their area.
The Amersham Decides team has visited Amersham School, Chesham Bois School, St Mary’s School, Elangeni School and Amersham and Wycombe College to talk to students about the importance of letting young people also have their say as part of Amersham Decides.