Community cheque funds fish and chips and coach trips

6/2/2010

Fish and chips are on the menu for older people in the Chickerell area thanks to community-minded takeaway owners Karen and John Pearce.

The couple, who run Alf’s Fish and Chips on the corner of Lynch Lane, Weymouth, deliver fish and chip meals regularly to people in the area, including residents at Magna Housing Association’s Marshallsay Court, Chickerell. They have also arranged for residents to be taken on coach trips to Lyme Regis and West Bay.

So, to make sure the fish and chips and the trips keep going, Magna’s eastern area residents’ panel decided to make a donation to Alf’s from Magna’s Community Initiative Fund (CIF).

Residents or panel members or staff can apply to the panel for funds to support projects that benefit more than one Magna household or person.

Panel chairman Enola Cole said: “The most important criteria is that awards should benefit a lot of Magna residents - be it for new parking areas, fencing, play areas for children or, as in this case, to give our older residents an outing.

“John and Karen do so much to support older people in the area. They put on trips and come out and give them free dinners once a month. They are a credit to our community.

“We decided what they do was benefiting residents so we wanted to show our support by giving Alf’s a £1,000 donation from CIF so this good work can carry on.”

Karen Pearce said: “We’ve been doing this for about five years now. We enjoy it. Alf’s is like a community shop, we’re on the corner so in the middle of everything.”

Ken Bodycombe, Magna’s community development manager, went along to the fish and chip lunch and was delighted to see residents enjoying themselves.

He said: “This kind of project is good for building strong communities, which is important to Magna.”

The residents’ panel also has a separate fund from which it can award donations to local organisations.  

Said Mrs Cole: “In most cases, these will be ones that directly help our residents.  Some of the recent organisations to which we have given money are the Citizens Advice Bureau, Life Education, police community cars, boxing clubs, and repairs to community halls.  Our panel looks at each individual application and then votes on whether to award funds or not.”