Finances

Godmanchester in Bloom spends some £6000 in cash and kind on its activities each year. Most of its income is derived from donations and grants, for example from the Town Council, the Community Association 800 Club, charitable community funds and, in earlier years, housing and commercial associations.

The only in-house fund-raising activity to date is the bi-annual Open Gardens weekend and the Scarecrows. A large part of this income and most of the grants and donations are assigned to specific projects, but sufficient funds also have to be found for replanting and maintaining existing installations and for the basic running costs of the organisation. However some of the funds have been applied to improving areas of the Town with trees, and the addition of picnic benches on the recreation ground and Judith’s Field. Accounting and banking facilities are also provided for the Garden Club, and were also provided initially for the Town Show and Godmanchester Remembers.

A few examples of how we’ve raised the funds to continue over the past few years, and some of the areas where we’ve spent it:

In the early years Muir and Luminus Social Housing Associations were especially generous, and allowed us to build up a pattern of planting bulbs and trees across the Town. Throughout the whole period the Town Council has been very helpful, agreeing to grant applications for bulbs and trees planted by In Bloom and, later, providing additional hanging baskets. They now cover the cost of filling and watering both the earliest and the additional baskets. Grants have also been raised from the Cambridgeshire Community Fund (CCF) for a Bee Hive, Bees and a viewing shed, sensory planting in the memorial garden in Cambridge Street and for trees and bulbs in the 800th Charter Anniversary Year. There have also been grants through the CCF from the Looker Energy Environmental Fund for ongoing costs, and for the bench in Silver Street. And, of course, Tesco Bags of Help.

There have also been many “payments in kind” over the years, including hanging baskets and planters provided by licensed and business premises, Churchyard plantings by the Church Youth Group, the exchange of unwanted “greens” and “manure” between the Allotments and Wood Green: The Animals Charity, and the husbanding of Portholme by the London Angling Association. There are now three Town orchards, including two provided and planted with fruit trees donated by the community.

Contact

If you would care to send us a donation to help us with our work for the Town please contact us.

Trevor Sparling
trevorsparling@gmail.com