A new fund to help community projects in towns and villages across Nottinghamshire has been oversubscribed by more than £7m.

The Supporting Local Communities fund (SLC), previously known as the Local Improvement Scheme, has a £500,000 pot to fund heritage, environmental and conservation projects.

Nottinghamshire County Council's Environment and Sustainability committee chairman Councillor Jim Creamer commented: "We have been inundated with requests for funding so we introduced a new scoring system for this year's applicants.

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"We looked at factors like levels of deprivation, the amount of external funding and voluntary hours available as well as the opportunity for increased community cohesion and we believe this is a much fairer system for distributing funds."

Among the schemes given the go ahead from April 1 are creating a community garden and allotment at St Mary's Gardens in Hawtonville, the creation of a new storage facility at Edwinstowe Cricket Club, refurbishment works at Mansfield Woodhouse Heritage Centre, refurbishment works at the shopping area at Honeywood Gardens Estate in Carlton and providing a new skatepark in Ollerton.

(CD/JP)