The Cheviot Hill Riders received a grant for £4,615 from the National Lottery Awards for All programme in late 2002. Since then we have been awarded a Blue Plaque (a Lottery award for community projects) and a further grant.
We were awarded this money to build and develop a jump and 4x track at Wooler, Northumberland. Built on private land that we agreed to lease it features a 4x track designed by Fort William DH track designer Stu Thomson. It also features beginners track , North Shore (raised wooden tracks) and various hucks, gaps and play tracks.
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t is run on a membership based scheme where riders can pay for a day visit or out-right for a year. All members are allowed to put ideas forward of what they would like to be developed and are encouraged to lend a hand on building and repair days.
It is hoped that we will be able to run events there at future dates.
So you want to apply for a Lottery Grant? Well Max Jaffa has written a guide which you can view below. It is written in list form, so take your time and have a good read.
Alternatively you can download the guide in a PDF format here
How to apply for Awards For All:
A brief guide
First of all you must be an official club, this entails :-
1. You must have a set of rules ( a constitution ) , I have a guide set which can be emailed to anyone.
2. Form a small committee
3. Open a bank account in the name of your group that requires at least 2 signatures.
4. You need a grant between £500 - £5000
5. You can spend the grant within 1 year
6. An estimate of your income and expenditure for your first year (for a new club) or a set of accounts if you are an established club.Application Form :-
The best place to get this is from the Sports development officer at you local council.
Here is a guide to the most important questions on the form :-
Q1 – Q 4 = Self explanatory!
Q5 What are the main activities of the group and what services do you provide?
Try to cover as wide a range of people in your answer as possible i.e. Mountain biking of all types catering for all ages and abilities.
Q6 –Q7 =Self Explanatory!
Q8 How do you attract new members?
List as many ways as possible i.e. Internet, local press, word of mouth.
Q9 How much money do you need & give a breakdown?
List what items / services you need and say what you need them for and also get a written quote for each item to go with your application.
Q10 Any contribution you are making towards the project ?
This does not have to be money, we put that our contribution would be labour, try to estimate a value for this i.e. 4 people working 10 hrs = £400
Q11 How will the grant be used ?
List what you will spend the money on i.e. To build a MTB track, to provide coaching , 1st aid training.
Q12 When will the project take place ?
Give a date for when you expect to start work on the project.
Q13 What ages are the people who will benefit from the grant?
Cover as wide a range as possible.
Q14 =Self explanatory!
Q15 How would you describe the people?
Tick box answer – again minority groups, low income , are good answers.
Q16 =Self explanatory!
Q17 How many people would benefit?
The higher the better , but be realistic .
Q18 How will the grant help you meet 1 or more of the aims??
The aims are listed in the front of the application i.e. It will be built and run by local people, training and coaching will be available to all, locals will not have to travel X miles to do this activity.
Q19 – 24 Bank details etc.
The above is just a rough guide as to how we filled in our form, most of the answers are just common sense but take time to read the questions a couple of times before you start to fill it in.
GOOD LUCK
Max Jaffa CHR can be contacted directly by e-mailing