Cotswold District Council has launched its new online crowdfunding platform to give residents the chance to seek financial support for their ideas to improve local places.

The new platform ‘Crowdfund Cotswold’ launched last Monday (February 22), in partnership with the UK’s leading civic crowdfunding platform Spacehive.

The aim of ‘Crowdfund Cotswold’ is to fund and deliver on ideas to improve the district put forward by the local community, for the local community.

Cllr Jenny Forde, cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “We can’t wait to see what ideas and initiatives our residents will put forward to ‘Crowdfund Cotswold’.

"Local people are best placed to understand the challenges and opportunities in their local area and this will put their ideas in the driving seat.

“We would also love to hear from any businesses or organisations who care about the Cotswolds to join us in offering support to project ideas so we can turbocharge the success of locally-led campaigns together.

"The more people that get involved in ‘Crowdfund Cotswold’, the better.”

The deadline to put forward your idea is April 21, 2021. You can get started by simply visiting Spacehive’s website and creating your own project page.

People and organisations can pledge as little as £2 towards a project and contributions are only charged if the campaign hits its target.

Cllr Richard Morgan, Leader of the Opposition Conservative group said: "The previous Conservative administration of Cotswold District Council had a number of schemes and initiatives where local community groups and parish councils could quickly and easily apply for financial support and grants from the district council.

"We funded everything from youth clubs to community cafes, sports clubs to World War One remembrance events.

"As grants were available on a geographical basis (via every CDC elected members wards), it meant funding was allocated quickly and fairly to all parts of the Cotswolds and meant smaller villages would not miss out on this vital funding due to their size or location.

"These grants had huge community engagement and support.

"In particular the successful rollout of our defibrillator grant scheme meant these life saving devices were placed all over the Cotswolds and they remain a potentially life saving tool in our rural communities.

"Its a real shame the Lib Dems have scrapped the previous community grants system and not kept any of its good qualities or advantages.

"Ultimately this decision now means the council will be paying a hefty £30,000 annual admin charge to a private company to manage something we previously did successfully in house."