THE Haslemere Hogs project -the brainchild of ex-town councillor Brian Howard, to raise funds for charity – has been given £2,000 from the town council’s grants budget and its community fund.

Members voted at last months’s full council meeting to buy and sponsor some of the pigs which will be used in a community arts project. The ‘Haslemere Hogs’ will be bought and sponsored by town businesses and other organisations and individuals and decorated by artists, schools and community groups.

The 60 painted resin pigs will then be displayed around the town and used in a campaign to attract visitors to Haslemere.

One of the aims of the project, which is similar to the recent Surrey Hills Cow Parade, will be to raise funds for community groups through sponsorship.

Mr Howard, a former mayor and past chamber of trade president, said the idea for the scheme came as a way to mark the 60th anniversary of Marley Flowers, the business he acquired 44 years ago. It will be officially launched with a gala evening at Haslemere Hall, on November 16.

There will be three levels of sponsorship: £200, to both buy and sponsor a hog £400, or £1,000 to become a lead sponsor.

The colourful hogs will eventually be auctioned during next year’s Haslemere Festival, with proceeds going to the mayor’s charities - which are the Haslemere Penny Ha’penny Trust (recently set up and given charitable status), Positive Action, Action Medical Research for Children, and The Kaleidoscope Trust.

Councillors ratified the grants committee’s earlier decision to give £1,000 towards the arts project, but debated whether the extra £1,000 would be better going directly to the Penny Ha’penny Trust as seed funding. But they agreed the investment to buy the pigs had potential to generate more income through sponsorship.

The Penny Ha’Penny Trust will in turn support community schemes within Haslemere.