From next year anyone needing financial assistance for heritage programmes in Thames will be able to apply for the new local Heritage Assistance Fund.

This is a second fund that will complement the existing Community Grants rounds and is a locally administered portion of what was previously budgeted as the District Heritage Fund.

The iconic Thames monument. Photo: Kester Bradwell/File

The Thames Community Board has been allocated $6,030 for local heritage assistance from the original $30,000 district fund, while the other four community Boards have each been allocated their own portions of the previously district-wide fund.

The Thames-Coromandel District Council says from now until the next round of Community Grants, staff draft a Thames-specific criteria, rather than simply adopting the previous district-wide criteria.

'This Thames portion of the district fund brings the story of heritage assistance funding full circle,” explains council.

'It was the Thames Community Board which, in 1992, began investigations along with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust into setting up what eventually became the Heritage Committee and assistance funds.”

In 1994, the Thames Community Board's 1994/1995 Business Plan recommended a Heritage Fund of $15,000, which was confirmed with the opening of a special bank account by the area manager in 1997 with a deposit of $15,000.

Meetings of the Heritage Committee eventually ceased due to other priorities and the assistance wasn't opened up again until council reviewed its district-wide heritage assistance after stakeholder consultation in 2006 and 2007.

The decision to distribute the budget to the Community Board areas was made during this May's Long Term Plan deliberations. The local criteria will be provided when the fund opens for applications in 2016.

THE FULL COMMUNITY BOARD ALLOCATIONS ARE:

• Thames: $6,030
• Coromandel-Colville: $2,847
• Mercury Bay: $10,050
• Tairua-Pauanui: $4,965
• Whangamata: $6,108