Page 7 - link magazine

swindonlink.com • June 2011 7
Festival gets Toothill into the spirit to spend a million

There was loads of fun on offer at the fi rst Toothill Festival on 7 May, plus the chance to talk about the state of the community and what’s
needed to improve the area over the next ten years, with the help of a £1 million grant from the National Lottery Big Local programme.
The event organised by a resi- see introduced or improved. Kerry ments and suggestions from teen- in. There’s been great feedback and
dents’ steering group and Toothill Wray of Groundworks, who are agers living in Toothill was impres- we’ll be releasing a full report when
Primary School and funded by a conducting the research said, “the sive.” the information has been collated.
Big Local Getting People Together largest number of comments were Organising committee chair Tina So many people said how glad they
grant brought out between 2,000 made about improving open spaces Mackie said, “it was a brilliant turn- were that we’re bringing the com-
and 2,500 people according to and installing more dog waste out with people of all ages joining munity together.”
compere for the day councillor bins, providing a lot more Tina added that details of how to
Steve Wakefi eld. out-of-school activities for apply for money from the Big Local
An exclusive incentive for children, the need for new project would become clearer after
Toothill residents, set out in a groups and improvements the Big Lottery Fund has agreed
leafl et distributed with The Link, to the community centre. fi nal terms with the independent
included free entry into a draw for “The number of com- trust that will administer the money
a £100 supermarket voucher and a for all fi fty similar projects across
Junior reporters interviewing
meal for six at the DeVere Village Steve Wakefield, from left, the country.
See the full story and more pictures
Buca di Beppo Italian restaurant. James Bennett, Jed Hawes,
They were further surprised to Shaun Taylor with Shirley at: http://bit.ly/toothillfest
receive vouchers for a free burger Ludford of 105.5 www.mytoothill.org.uk
served by Toothill Scouts, a free
cream tea at the community cafe
in the church, a free bouncy castle
session for children or a face paint.

Running a stall on the day was
Nicola Hoare, above with Ashley
Parsons, who fi rst came to Toothill in
1977. Having moved to Freshbrook
she retains links through the church
and the school. She said, “bringing
the school and the community to-
gether to put on the festival was a
good move, it has been really well
supported. It was nice the Lottery
selected Toothill; I hope the festival
will encourage people to put on
activities in the future.”

Headteacher Martyn Cowell spent
much of the day being soaked by pupils
A team of scouts armed with
microphones supplied by Swindon
105.5 community radio toured the
school fi eld and met people in the
community centre and the church
to interview them about living in
Toothill and how the lottery money
could be spent.
Apart from the stalls and attrac-
tions, visitors were asked to fi ll in a
survey on what they would like to

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