Community grants

The Parish Clerk will receive all applications in the first instance. Contact the Parish Clerk via email, including:

1. full details of the project or activity

2. demonstration that the grant will be of benefit to the local community within the Parish

3. demonstration of a clear need for the funding

If you’d like to apply for a grant, please get in touch.

Under the appropriate legislation, the Parish Council includes in its annual budget an overall sum for local grants.

Local groups, clubs and associations operating within the Parish are invited to apply in writing in their own style at any time in the year. Grants are also open to voluntary organisations based elsewhere who can show that they specifically benefit the people of Collingbourne Ducis.

The Parish Council may indicate in some years a priority interest, such as young people, start-up groups, or sport, and in others it may give no priority. Grants may be given for recurrent operating costs, or for specific projects.

Once your application is received, the Parish Clerk will work with you to collate all the necessary information from the applicant ready for presentation and discussion at the appropriate Council meeting, which you will be invited to attend. (Attendance is not mandatory for a positive outcome, but we encourage you to attend and share with the councillors your project and progress.)

Once all materials have been reviewed and discussed at a public council meeting, the Council will make the decision on which grants to award. All applicants will be contacted following the Council’s decision.

The Parish Council will as normal practice carry forward any unallocated grant funds from one year to the next, thus augmenting the budget in the subsequent year, but it is not bound to do so.

Unless the Parish Council makes an exception, no one group may receive a grant in more than two consecutive years.

1. The organisation must be either non-profit or charitable. Applications will not be considered from private organisations operated as a business to make a profit or surplus.

2. Grants will not be made to projects that discriminate on any grounds.

3. Grants will not be made to individuals.

4. Grants will not be made retrospectively.

5. The administration of and accounting for any grant shall be the responsibility of the recipient. All awards must be properly accounted for and evidence of expenditure should be supplied to the Council as requested.

6. Only one application for a grant will be considered from each organisation in any one financial year.

7. Each application will be assessed on its own merits.

8. The Council may make the award of any grant or subsidy subject to such additional conditions and requirements as it considers appropriate. The Council reserves the right to refuse any grant application which it considers to be inappropriate or against the objectives of the Council.

9. Any grant must only be used for the purpose for which it was awarded unless the written approval of the Council has been obtained for a change in use of the grant monies, and that any unspent portion of the grant must be returned to the Council by the end of the financial year in which it was awarded.

10. The Council may make the award of any grant or subsidy as it considers appropriate in the event of any unforeseen urgent event.

11. Nothing contained herein shall prevent the Council from exercising, at any time, its existing duty or power in respect of providing financial assistance or grants to local or national organisations under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, Section 137.