Hartwell website receives grant from Parish Council

Published on 9th September 2010 9:14am

This news relates to Hartwell Community Website

A grant to the Hartwell Community website to help cover costs was approved at the Parish Council meeting on Tuesday evening

hartwellvillage.com was created in early 2007 as an online community forum to enable residents to share, discuss and interact with eeach other. In the Summer of 2009, the website was relaunched as a community website, allowing local people to add their own community groups, businesses, events and news.

The website is independently run (as a not-for-profit project), but is partially funded by The Parish Council in return for having their own section on the website. The Parish Council pages contain information on what the Parish Council does, information on specific projects such as Community Speed Watch and Affordable Housing, details on planning applications and meeting minutes and agendas.

At The Parish Council meeting last Tuesday evening, the Parish Council approved the website's request for funding, and awarded £140 to help covers running costs and advertising for another year.

Phil Sorrell, who runs hartwellvillage.com, included in the proposal, plans for the following year including:

Redevelop site to make it easier to add and manage items and to add functionality
Work with local groups and businesses to improve quality of information on the website
Remove dependence and prominence of the forum
Improve social linking to make better use of Facebook
Use banners and flyers around village and at events to improve exposure (partially funded by advertising)
Implement specific features for groups, e.g. online calendar / booking for Community Centre, and "Have Your Say.." campaign for Parish Plan
Work towards becoming a formal community group with management committee

The provisional budget for the next year (October 2010 - September 2011) is as follows:

INCOME	BUDGET 10/10-09/11
Carried Forward	20.00
Grants / Donations [1]	132.55
Sponsorship / Advertising [2]	40.00
TOTAL INCOME	192.55

EXPENSE
Setup Costs	0.00
Direct Costs (Hosting and Domains) [3]	52.55
Email Marketing [4]	30.00
Advertising [5]	110.00
Other	0.00
TOTAL EXPENSE	192.55

Profit (Loss)	0.00

[1] Grant from Parish Council totalling £140 (but includes VAT on hosting)
[2] Existing advertising balance is £14 but cannot be withdrawn until balance exceeds £50 (expected late 2011). £40 revenue from sponsorship of email newsletters and flyers.
[3] Hosting provided by Wheredidthetigergo at discounted charity rate, domain provided by Our Man Inside
[4] Approximately 6 campaigns during the year
[5] Banners and colour flyers provided by Wheredidthetigergo at cost price