A new community bus, upgrades to local parks, a training course for learner drivers and a mobile food van are some of the 15 projects in the Light Electorate that have won funding in the Fund My Neighbourhood grant program.

Local Member of Parliament, Mr Tony Piccolo said the Gawler community has been successful in winning $1 million for the ideas that were nominated, which is an outstanding result.

“We did it, again,” Mr Piccolo said.

“The community has shown that when it works together, we can achieve great things,” he said.

To be successful, projects had to gain the support of their local communities and attract the most votes in an online poll.

Mr Piccolo said that the overwhelming response to the Fund My Neighbourhood program proves that no one knows their neighbourhood better than the people who live it in.

“Giving local people the power to Decide where Government funding should be allocated demonstrates the importance of this new way of distributing public money,” Mr Piccolo said.

“I was so proud of our local community who had worked very hard to achieve this fantastic result.

“From those who took the initiative and put their idea forward, to those who supported it and encouraged their neighbours to vote, this truly was a collective effort,” he said.

To assist with the process Mr Piccolo held a number of information and nomination forums to give local communities the best chance to win the money.

Mr Piccolo said that he was honoured to be able to work with a number of highly motivated local people and support them through the process, including making his electorate office available as a polling booth.

“We have shown that when the cause is right, we have the people power to deliver,” Mr Piccolo said.

“We won $1 million from the total state budget for the program of $20 million.

“Gawler can be proud of its achievement,” he said.

Funding has been split amongst 15 regions on a per person basis to ensure a spread of projects are delivered across the state and Gawler was in Northern Adelaide region.

Sponsors of successful projects will now enter into a grant agreement with the State Government.

Mr Piccolo said he was keen to meet with nominators of unsuccesful projects and work with them to increase their chance for funding in the second round of Fund My Neighbourhood program which will open in May 2018.

A full list of winning projects is available at www.fundmyneighbourhood.sa.gov.au.