A seven-year battle to build a community centre in Glyncoch, south Wales has received a boost after Stephen Fry urged his Twitter followers to dig out their loose change and collectively fund the project. Many believe it could be the start of a new trend that sees communities take greater control of planning and public space development through ‘crowd-funding’ – where groups club together to pay for things that councils can no longer afford.

The small town, situated north of Cardiff, needs to raise 30,000 by 30 March to build the 390,000 local hub. They have some grant funding already secured, but this will expire if the remaining cash isn’t raised by April.

Campaigners say that hundreds of small contributions from the public – equal to the cost of a sandwich - would transform the deprived community.

The town is using Spacehive.com – a new online funding platform for community and public space developments – to collect donations.

Fry encouraged his four million Twitter followers to contribute small pledges and collectively fund the project for the price of a “cucumber sandwich”.

The project – which can be seen online at Spacehive.com/GlyncochCC - has already attracted donors ranging from local Glyncoch families to a fashion photographer in Vancouver.

Spacehive.com aims to shake up neighbourhood planning by allowing anyone to put forward ideas for community projects. Vitally, everyone - from local people to businesses and councils – will be able to pledge funding directly to the projects. The service is backed by the RoyalInstitute of British Architects

If Glyncoch’s campaign succeeds, its new community centre will be energy efficient, accessible, and sited at the heart of the community. It will provide a vibrant social hub and allow local people to access vital services across education and health.

The existing community centre is cramped and dilapidated, despite having undergone extensive maintenance over the years at substantial cost. As a result, the services it provides are being adversely affected.

The centre plans to offer a full programme of daily activities, which includes a learning programme four days per week, enterprise workshops, nightly events for children and young people, luncheon clubs for older people; community fitness sessions, and social parties. Without the centre, Glyncoch will miss out on vital services and the essential community bonds they bring.

The mass funding campaign is part of a wider initiative to test new ways of regenerating communities in Glyncoch, led by the social action network Your Square Mile.

Doug Williams, deputy mayor of Rhondda Cynon Taff Council said:

“Glyncoch is a deprived area. People are used to being let down. But if we can finally get this new centre built, people will start thinking ‘we can get out of this rut’.”

Liz Peace, chief executive of the British PropertyFederation, trade body for developers and planners, said:

“We support the government’s intention to create a planning system that supports economic growth but the reality is that nearly 500m of funding for public space developments has been lost. Enabling the public to take direct action through Spacehive.com could help ensure vital improvements do go ahead and offer a vital new channel of funding which allmanner of companies and individuals could feed into.”

Paul Twivy, former chief executive of the Big Society Network and founder of Your Square Mile, said:

“Crowd-funding is a form of gathering small donations from a large number of people and making them effectively shareholders in acommunity resource.”

To find out more about the project, and pledge a contribution, visit: www.spacehive.com/glyncochcc