Langold and Carlton have been allocated £1million across the two areas to spend on making their areas better places to live as part of a pioneering Big Lottery Fund (BIG) scheme to put decision-making power in the hands of local people. Residents and community groups in Langold and Carlton will be invited to come along and find out how they can get involved at a series of public meetings which will be publicised in the press over the next few weeks.

Residents will get to decide how to spend the £1m funding to improve their local areas over the next ten years, which could include anything from creating new community facilities to starting up training and employment schemes, tackling anti-social behaviour, or providing more activities for young people. Residents in these areas will also benefit from a range of support, training and networking opportunities to enable them to make best to use of their funding.

The money comes from a £200m Big Lottery Fund scheme called Big Local, which aims to give communities a leading role in making decisions about how to improve their area and tackle local problems.

The Lottery funded scheme is being managed by Local Trust, a recently established, independent organisation set up by the Community Development Foundation and its consortium partners to run Big Local. They will work in close consultation with residents in each area to support them and offer guidance on their plans.

In the first instance Big Local representatives will bring residents and community organisations in each of the funded areas together to learn about Big Local, create strategies to get people involved and then begin the process of deciding what priorities local people have for the money and setting up a local partnership. They will then work with the areas to help them develop a plan to spend the £1m funding over the next ten years.

“Big Local is a really exciting opportunity for local residents, groups and organisations to make a positive and lasting difference to the communities in which they live. I am looking forward to working with them;” Mandy Wilson, Big Local representative for Langold and Carlton.

Rather than using the money to simply allocate grants for initiatives, residents are encouraged to use different, more sustainable ways of financing, for example giving loans or funding social enterprises, where money could be reinvested in the community.

Debbie Ladds, Chief Executive, Local Trust said: “Big Local is an exciting community initiative working with residents, community groups and others in the Big Local areas across England to help them make their area an even better place to live.

A total of 50 communities in England are being allocated the £1m funding, bringing the number of areas so far benefiting from the scheme to 100. A further 50 communities will be allocated funding through Big Local by the end of 2012.

Leader of Bassetlaw District Council, Councillor Graham Oxby, said “I am thrilled that two communities in Bassetlaw are going to benefit from this funding and that it will be up to the communities themselves to decide how best to use these funds. Langold and Carlton have missed out in the past from Government funding so it is excellent that they have been successful in this latest round of Big Local funding”.