Residents of the parish of Ottery St Mary are being invited by East Devon District Council and Ottery St Mary Town Council to vote for how they would spend £17,300 available for sports provision.
The projects that get the most votes will be delivered and the good news is you don't have to be 18 to vote, as kids get a vote too.
The parish of Ottery St Mary is anywhere covered by Ottery Town Council, which includes Tipton St John, Wiggaton, West Hill, Alfington, Escot, Gosford, Fenny Bridges, Fairmile and Metcombe.
You can vote on Friday, November 7:
at the Ottery St Mary Street Market, Mill Street, Ottery St Mary, from 10am to 12pm
OR
in the foyer of Sainsbury's in Ottery St Mary, Hind Street, EX11 1BW from 3pm to 6.30pm.
The money has come from developers who have built new homes(Section 106 funding) in the parish. For every home built developers must contribute some money towards sport and play and the parish of Ottery St Mary has accumulated £17,300.
East Devon is letting communities decide how this money is spent. The same process run in 2010 gave the Ottery St Mary skate park some funding and created the outdoor gym in the Land of Canaan.
An appeal for ideas earlier this year produced a range of suggestions from Ottery St Mary residents, organisations, voluntary and community groups. Residents are now being asked to choose between all those that were eligible, possible and affordable.
These include a petanque playing area, a sports activity wall at Winter's Lane, improving the batting conditions and safety of players at Ottery Cricket Club, football goals for Ottery Youth Football Club for their youngest players and an automatic watering system for Ottery Bowling Club. The proposal(s) with the most votes will get the go-ahead.
All people voting must be present at the event itself. Residents of any age can vote whether they are aged five or 95, as long as they live within the area covered by Ottery Town Council.
East Devon will be making sure that the final vote is representative of the actual population of the whole town and all age groups. This may mean further voting events need to take place to allow more residents of certain ages or locations to vote.
The district council's Cabinet Member for Environment, Cllr Iain Chubb said: "We are committed to making sure that local people have their say about where money from developments in their town gets spent. We've had some great suggestions. I would urge residents to put the date in their diaries and come and vote. The projects that get the most votes will happen - so you really can make a difference".
Cllr Glyn Dobson, Mayor of Ottery St Mary, said: "Once again there is an opportunity for residents to vote on suggestions made by groups in the Parish. I do hope as many people of any age will come along on the day to vote for the project they would like to see delivered. A councillor will be there to help with any questions".
This is the voting question that will appear:
Which community projects would you most like to be funded?
Please choose up to TWO projects
A. A petanque playing area at Strawberry Lane so that Ottery St Mary Petanque Club can move there. Petanque is a game where people standing in a circle throw metal balls as close as possible to a wooden ball. Their current ground at Salston Manor has no water, electricity or toilets and they cannot host competitions there. Project cost: £8,000
B. A sports activity wall in Winters Lane playing field to give young people more to do, this would include a football goal and basketball / netball hoop. Project cost: £15,000
C. Improving the batting conditions and safety of cricket players at Ottery St Mary Cricket Club by installing sightscreens so they can see the ball more easily. Project cost: £1,500
D. Two sets of small football goals to be used by the youngest players at Ottery St Mary Youth Football Club. They currently use cones as goals or have to use goals that are too big for them. Project cost: £3,000
E. An automatic watering system to water the bowling green at Ottery St Mary Bowling Club. At the moment they have to water the green manually. Applying for: £2,500, they already have the other £2,785 needed
