ESSEX County Council is offering to spend £5,000 on community projects through its own crowdfunding website.

The Essex Crowd launched last September through Spacehive, the world's first crowdfunding platform for civic projects.

Traditionally, crowdfunding involves setting a target and appealing for the public to financially back your idea.

The difference with the Essex Crowd is the council will step in with a pledge of up to £5,000 from an available £500,000 pot of money.

Essex County Council leader David Finch said: "This is part of a series of initiatives launched to promote much more community engagement and remind people not all the best ideas come from the council.

"We launched it alongside the Essex Lottery and what we call place budget initiatives.

"It's us making sure funding is available to enrich and enhance the community in a way they want."

The most recent information event in Colchester saw more than 25 people show up to find out more.

Five projects from across the county have already been funded and since September, two have received county funding.

Gazette:

Councillor David Finch

Mr Finch said: "If the project has the community's support and that of local councillors as well then the answer is yes to funding from us.

"For example if an individual or group has a £10,000 project and achieves £2,000 funding from a source, we would match-fund the amount.

"The remaining £6,000 would then have to come from other sources or public donations."

Some of the ideas mooted is one which transforms older peoples' lives by Age Concern in Colchester, councillors trying to repair a footbridge in Halstead, erecting a gymnasium and boating activities for young children.

For the best chance of success your idea needs to be "original, in the community's interest and make a positive difference".

He said: "The issue with the Essex Crowd is it's had a slow burn, but I think it will develop and be an incredibly successful tool.

"These things take time for ideas to percolate. A perfect example would be the council's Community Initiatives Fund which has been running for the best part of 12 years.

"Now it's well understood but in the early days it wasn't well utilised.

"I'm very enthusiastic for the future but I recognise it's going to take time to develop The Essex Crowd further.

"Nonetheless it's an important tool to help communities do what they want to do."

Visit spacehive.com/movement/theessexcrowd.