It will be blooming all over Tintwistle in 2021

It could be a blooming good start to the new year in Tintwistle.

Around 4,000 purple crocus bulbs should be beginning to sprout and a village group could be getting its hands on some hard cash.

The bulbs were a gift to Tintwistle Parish Council from Glossop and District Rotary Club to draw attention to the worldwide movement’s End Polio Now Campaign and they have gone in the ground all over the village.

While the money on offer is from the newly-formed Tintwistle Parish Council Community Fund.

It was set up following a suggestion from council chair Marianne Stevenson and is made up from the £600 allowance that goes to the chair every year to cover his (or hers) expenses in carrying out the role.

At the council’s meeting in November, Cllr Stevenson explained that she had no need for the allowance and since April 2018 had not claimed any expenses.

Marianne Stevenson, Eileen Harrison, Sally Drake and Brian Spaul.

Her proposal to set up the fund was unanimously voted in by councillors and grants are expected to be distributed in January.

The idea is that any Tintwistle community organisation is ‘properly constituted’  and can apply for a grant to cover their activities.

In the first year the funding pot is £1,200 with applications for a maximum of £100 made via an application form that’s posted on the parish council website.

Cllr Stevenson will lead a three councillor panel who will scrutinise the application and decide who gets the grant.

Councillors will review the fund every year in case there is a change of chair who may chose not to continue with it.

Turning to the great crocus plant, Cllr Stevenson said: “Hopefully we will have patches of purple in places where people do not normally walk, so please look out for them.”

Cllr Stevenson has thanked David Budell, Sam Campbell, Sally Drake, Jane Curkin, Eileen Harrison, Brian Spaul and Jacqui Watkinson for their  help in planting them.

Main image:

GREEN FINGERS: Sue Campbell and Jacqui Watkinson.