Prince William launches £250,000 community fund for Princetown
The Prince of Wales launched The Princetown Community Fund in Princetown on Dartmoor on Tuesday.
The fund will make at least £250,000 available to locally led social, economic and environmental projects The Independent.
Prince William unveiled the fund during a visit to the village. The engagement had been listed for Tuesday. He called at Gather & Moor, the community, visitor and cultural hub used by residents and visitors alike Royal Central.
Prince William is also Duke of Cornwall. That dukedom carries with it the Duchy of Cornwall, the private landed estate whose income supports the heir to the throne's official and charitable life. The Duchy has said that £1.5 million a year in rent paid for Dartmoor Prison will be redirected to support Princetown and the local area Duchy of Cornwall.
The new fund sits inside that commitment. The money stays local.
The youth club featured in the day. After a previous visit to Princetown youth club, Prince William asked the Duchy to look at supporting the club's ambition to improve its facilities Royal Central. No design or timetable was announced. The request was for the estate to examine what help was possible.
Princetown is a moorland village with close ties to the prison estate. The prison pays rent to the Duchy as landowner. That rent, rather than a new grant from taxation, is the source identified for local support.
The fund is described as locally led. In practice, that phrase means projects are proposed in Princetown and the surrounding area, not decided at a distance. The three headings are broad. Social, economic and environmental covers everything from meeting space to jobs and the moor itself. Details on how to apply and who decides were not set out in the announcements covered here. The confirmed figures are the £250,000 minimum for the fund and the wider £1.5 million annual prison rent identified for the area.
For local groups, this means a named pot with a clear purpose. What makes this stand out is the simplicity of the link. A large annual payment tied to one institution is being channelled into small bids for social, economic and environmental work chosen locally.
