Watchet Coastal Community Team is delighted to have won a bid from the Big Lottery Fund and Department of Digital, Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) to become one of 20 partnerships countrywide to take part in the first stage of the 'Place Based Social Action' programme.

Watchet CCT will now receive support to develop social action plans designed to address issues important to the local community.

The Placed Based Social Action programme is funded using £4.5 million of Government and National Lottery money.

It aims to support communities to put social action at the heart of plans which make a positive difference in the local area.

The theory is that this will give people the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the design and delivery of local services by bringing together communities, local authorities, public sector organisations, service providers, civil society organisations and businesses to address local priorities.

Between now and December 2018, Watchet CCT will work with New Economics Foundation and Locality, the national network for community organisations that bring local people together to meet local needs, to design a new local social action plan.

In early 2019, up to 10 of the 20 partnerships taking part in the first phase of the programme will go on to be awarded funding of up to £240,000 for three years to put their plans into action.

Following this, up to five of these partnerships will be awarded further funding of up to £255,000 to develop and expand their plans for another three years to December 2024.

Watchet Coastal Community Team is a partnership organisation made up of 30 local organisations, businesses, community groups and Town, District and County Council. The team work collaboratively to help further initiatives that help to benefit the town both economically and socially. Peter Murphy, WCCT chairman, said: “We are thrilled to have been chosen as one of the Place Based Social Action partnerships and look forward to working with local people and authorities to design a plan that will have lasting and far reaching benefits for our local people.

"Our plan will aim to bring people together and design a system for collaborative working across all facets of local life. We very much look forward to devising it.”

Dawn Austwick, chief executive of the Big Lottery Fund, said: “This programme is about supporting communities to work together to tackle the social issues that matter in their area.

"It is designed to ensure solutions are created by local people for local people and we’re looking forward to seeing how these plans develop over the next year.”

Tracey Crouch, Minister for Sports and Civil Society, said: "Communities lie at the heart of our commitment to build a society that works for everyone. This investment, bolstered by partnerships, will create positive change as people work together to develop solutions to overcome local issues in their area.”

Place Based Social Action will run until 2025 and is administered by the Big Lottery Fund in partnership with DCMS.