Local good causes in the Devizes area are being invited to make their pitch to a Dragons' Den-style panel to apply for a share of £4,000 funding for their pet projects.

Devizes Lions Club is organising the Lions Den event in the Cheese Hall at the town hall on Wednesday, April 9, from 7pm to 10pm to find out which groups deserve a share of the money. The funding is made up of £2,000 from its own coffers match-funded by a similar amount from the Community Foundation for Wiltshire and Swindon.

The applicants will have just eight minutes to make their presentation before they have to endure ten minutes of interrogation by panel members.

Organiser Tony Scorer said: “We found that we had this spare money to distribute among local charities and we thought this was the fairest way of doing it, as well as providing a bit of entertainment for all involved.”

The projects should be run by or for the benefit of the people of Devizes and the surrounding community, the applicants should all be voluntary groups but applications from individuals may be accepted in exceptional circumstances.

Applications should be accompanied by a copy of the group’s constitution, set of accounts, bank statement and budget.

The judging panel will be the current Lions president Geoffrey Taylor, Rosemary Macdonald from the Community Foundation, Michael Gaiger of Gaiger Brothers, and Lions Tony Scorer and Michael Green.

For application forms contact tonyscorer@yahoo.com