As for the Business Forum etc I have written to them and either got no reply or told it was not something they are interested in.
I can't comment about getting no reply becuase no correspondance has come across my desk, but it is something we are certainly interested in and looking at. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as just buying one.
The approximate costs for the project I designed was circa £10,800. The MBF certainly isn't sat on that kind of cash.
With the maximum grant from the Area Flexibility Fund being £1,000 and there being sensible limits on how often 1 organisation can apply (and the MBF already have applied for the maximum amount for a new Car Park Rebate Scheme - more details to follow when the scheme is ready to go live) that isn't a feasible option for funding either.
We have come up with some inventive funding options but unfortunately they don't cover the full amount. The project isn't dead and is still being explored but until funding is secured we can't move forward.
There are also one or two other problems (such as planning permission, land owners consent, high-street advertising regulations, conservation rules, etc) that we need to get round. Not impossible to do but issues non the less.
Some years ago I believe the Gents Outfitters in Marple offered to create an Information Board but I am unaware of it materialising - did someone stop it?
This one I know a lot about - the Gents Outfitter is my business!
In 2008 we discussed with various community bodies the options for doing something for the community to celebrate our 30th anniversary of trading in Marple. The support was for a noticeboard.
Unfortunately, the costs for a noticeboard were higher than we had originally intended and a number of other issues (similar to those listed above) raised their head. Unfortunately, being a single business and not a community group some of those issues were going to prove quite difficult to get round.
We therefore decided to honour the noticeboard idea in a slightly different way - we made a donation to the Friends of Marple Memorial Park organisation for them to put towards the noticeboard at the entrance to the park (more info here -
http://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/projects/entrance-improvements.html)