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shbib Maple Road summer party grant refused.
The Maple Road street party has been axed this year after vital grants were refused - because the town is not deemed to be deprived enough.
Organisers asked for £12,000 from the Community Development Fund and another £28,000 grant from the Arts Council.
Surbiton resident Nathan Erasmus put in 200 hours of unpaid work to set the ball rolling and had already provisionally booked bands, organised roles for volunteers and arranged a stage to be built. He said, "The government thinks Surbiton is a well off area so it's not on the agenda when it comes to hand outs. There is a need for something like this in this area but unfortunately it's not to be."
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Wimbledon Guardian 
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Hey guys, thanks for your comments.
The first Street Party cost 15k which was paid by 5.6k with grants, 3k with sponsorship in the programme, 1.1k of donations from locals and businesses and the rest with favors from outsourced electricians etc
The cost needed to put on a festival like this is 15k. We applied for 12k at first thinking we would only need to generate 3k from the program to pay for the rest. In unsuccessfully getting that grant because the area was not as in need for a community regeneration grant as other areas. I then applied for 28k from the Arts Council which would have allowed us to invest in other creative youth projects however they felt it wasn't highbrow enough.
After taking those rejections we collaborated with a charity called Regenerate in the famous Alton Estate in Roehampton, Wandsworth. We raised 24k and put on the same kind of free community festival there which went down a storm. The local businesses, community and charities in Roehampton now have a blue print and understand the grant application process. They are applying for grants presently and now have the knowledge to run a free self-sustainable community music festival. Also for you info the government has an obligation for events like this. You can apply for 2 types of grants from local government towards a community event for community cohesion, a small grant of £750 or a large grant of £5,000. If you have a positive idea that benefits a large audience just phone your local council and ask for the grants office, every local council in the UK has one. And you don't have to pay the money back : )
If you want more info or want a blueprint for a festival then you can contact us through the website www.letthemusicspeak.co.uk
The world wont stop turning if one street in Surbiton is closed for a day - b[filtered word]! Its not like there arent alternative routes into Kingston etc! It's a shame that people underestimate the importance of community events to the well being of everyone. It's like the people who work out the cost of every cultural event in terms of how many hospitals the money could pay for instead. But I suspect those types will never get the point.
Any chance of finding a sponsor for next year? If I win the lottery between now and then I'll pay for it myself! A real shame :(
The Maple Road area has become far to twee and when it began to call itself a "Village" I knew it was time to move out( i used to live in a cul de sac of cottages nearby).
Perhaps if residents could reclaim the pavements and leave the roads to vehicles the area would once agian become a pleasant place to live.
I live just off Maple Road, and I think it is a fantastic place to live. For me it provides the best combination of facilities, convenience and peace in Surbiton. It is the most expensive part of town, however, so probably should be the nicest.
I agree that the 'village' moniker was naff and a mistake on the part of those who introduced it, but this should not detract from the fact that this is a throroughly pleasant part of town to live.
Funny, I'd have thought that Southborough was by far the most expensive part of town.
The big houses in the posher parts of Berrylands would be more expensive as well.
You are right, but I meant that the Maple Road area tends to be the most expensive for what you get, e.g. a 3 bed semi that is £700k in The Mall would probably be £500k in Berrylands and a 2 bed flat that is £350k on Maple Road would be a lot cheaper elsewhere in the town. There are just not many large houses left in the Maple Road area.
I agree that Southborough is the 'poshest' part of town with the most £1m+ houses, though.
What makes the place deprived anyway? Is there a scale somewhere?
Actually, there is. The government rank all wards in the country in a deprivation index, based on unemployment, housing average incomes etc.
From memory, all of the wards in the Surbiton district were in the top 15%, and the better ones were very near the top. It is available on one of the government websites, but I can't remember exactly where.
The problem is that these things work on averages. By it's nature, Surbiton attracts a lot of reasonably well-off, professional people.This does not mean that there are not quite a few deprived people living here, just that their effect on the figures is masked by the majority.
Out of all the people in Surbiton I can think of at the top of my head, very few of them use out of town malls. Is the Tesco or Asda on the A3 classified as an out-of-town mall? Because the definition I have for mall is "Public area containing a complex of shops" .. so that rules out those.
I can't think of any 'mall' at the top of my head that people in Surbiton use.
Getting back to topic, the closure of Maple Road was hardly disruptive and is already done yearly for tree lopping. Perhaps they could have twinned the two events? The alternate routes around are plentiful. Most of the fun of a street party is the reclaiming of the street. Throughout the year we have to put up with drivers constantly ignoring the speed limits and general misbehaviour. Once a year it's our turn.
I can't see where you think it's a bad idea, the businesses in the street love it, the people obviously enjoy it. A few motorists need to make a small bypass, which they spend their entire motoring lives doing anyway.
Oh, shall we move the Surbiton Festival away from Victoria Road to Victoria Rec? In fact, you can cancel that nonsense. How much does that cost to put on?
I agree. One of the things I like about living in Surbiton is the ability to WALK to the local shops and supermarkets in Victoria Road, and WALK to Kingston for other shopping. I don't have to go to out-of-town malls, and I only have to drive on the rare occasion that I buy more than I can carry.
I think that driving in Surbiton should be discouraged rather than encouraged. You can understand people driving into Kingston as they are coming from miles around, but local people driving a mile into Surbiton town centre should be minimised.
Most folks now still use out of town malls and the High Streets are dying.Unless fuel reaches £10/12 pgallon this trend will continue.
Just rename it Park PARTY
Wouldn't be much of a street party in a park.
Part of the appeal was the fact that it was a little rough around the edges, it brought people down to the businesses in the road. Closing off a road for a day, creating a community feeling, providing entertainment and business oppurtunities - I can't see where the bad is in this.
And to suggest streets are for traffic and park are for people ... why do we have High Street's full of the shops and not High Park's?
Have to say, £40k sounds quite a lot for a stage, a music bus and a few street entertainers. However, in comparison to how much the council would spend on organising something like this, it's probably a complete bargain.
I am really sorry that Nathan worked so hard for so little,but why on earth do we need street parties in such a busy street.This just adds to the hopeless congestion and poor parking in Surbiton.
Surely it can be done in the Balaclava Road Park and how on earth can it cost a minimum of £40,000,come on folks get real streets are for traffic and parks are for people.
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