Five groups in the town – Burnbridge Wanderers Junior Football Club, Burnham Swim and Sports Academy, Burnham Town Team, Burnham Food Festival and DanceFit – have been awarded the cash from Sedgemoor District Council’s Community Health Fund.
The funding has come from a one-off budget of up to £7,000 available for health-focused projects across the district which had to fit into the themes of physical activity, healthy eating or weight management.
Burnbridge Wanderers Junior Football Club has received £339.96 towards a ‘Quick Feet Training’ system to improve balance, co-ordination and fitness. The system allows for analysis and measurement of player performance and improvement.
Burnham-On-Sea Swim and Sports Academy has received £1000 towards its ‘Swim to Slim’ sessions, instructor-led pool sessions where the emphasis is on teaching both swimmers and non-swimmers alike how to exercise in the water to burn calories and promote weight loss.
Burnham Town Team has received £560 towards a series of five guided walks in Burnham over the summer following local themes such as Maritime, Victorian, Railway, Wartime, Industrial and Religious. Walks will provide gentle exercise.
Three grants were also awarded subject to fulfilling certain conditions (previous grant participation data and other funding).
Burnham Food and Drink Festival received £464 towards its ‘Meet and Two Veg’ project that aims to teach healthy cooking skills, provide low cost meals to those in food poverty and increase community cohesion through communal family meals.
The Food and Drink is also to receive £950 towards ‘The Great Burnham Bib Off’, a contest for families with pre-school children to promote fresh fruit and vegetables. This also includes a series of workshops on quick affordable healthy children’s meals.
And Burnham’s Dance Fit is to receive £1000 towards expanding the Dance Fit premises in Love Lane, Burnham-On-Sea to accommodate more classes and increase weight management.
The applications were judged against set criteria by Teresa Harvey, group manager; Cllr John Swayne; Portfolio holder for Community and Scrutiny, and Cllr Ian Tucker, shadow Portfolio holder for Community and Scrutiny from Sedgemoor District Council.
