Over £850k given to communities in first year of £1 million grant scheme

Harborough District Council’s £1 million Community Grant Fund launched in July 2024 and has seen a total of £870,495 awarded to parish and town councils to support them in delivering community projects.

The council’s Cabinet Sub-Committee Grants agreed, on 24 September, to allocate the final grants for 2024-25 totalling £205,785.94.

The 16 successful projects to receive funding for capital costs that create lasting assets, such as improvements to buildings, facilities, or purchasing and installing equipment include:

• Leire Parish Council – (£8,565.34) for a four-phase approach to improve the village, with new signs, benches, audio visual equipment and surface dressing
• Fleckney Village Hall – (£28,784) to install solar panels and storage battery
• Fleckney Athletics AFC Junior (£928.40) – to purchase a new set of folding, metal football goals for the younger age teams
• Thurnby & Bushby Parish Council – (£50,000) to install an outdoor gym at the Manor Field multi-use games area
• Scraptoft Parish Council – (£38,462.89) to refurbish the Community Hub car park
• Misterton with Walcote Parish Council – (£1,597.70) to purchase an extra set of football goals for the field by the Memorial Hall in Walcote
• Great Bowden Residents Management Company – (6,764) to purchase and install eight new bins
• South Kilworth Bowls Club – (£3,500) for an extension of concrete slabbing to the west side of the bowling green
• Houghton Field Association – (2,281.70) to purchase furniture for new community pavilion/sport changing facility in Houghton on the Hill
• Dunton Goes Green – (£613.94) to purchase litter picking equipment
• Husbands Bosworth Parish Council – (£13,250) to construct a new garage/workshop at the Millennium Pavilion for the equipment required to manage this facility
• Harborough Youth and Community Trust – (£5,028) to upgrade bi-fold doors at The CUBE youth centre
• RFM Studios CIC – (£16,012.62) to improve the community garden, install lockable storeroom cabinets, to install an access control system, to install climate control systems for studios and control room and to purchase additional studio equipment
• Gilmorton Parish Council – (£10,000) to install a new grass mat safety surface in toddlers’ play area
• North Kilworth Parish Council – (£10,000) to redevelop the village playground
• Great Easton Village Hall – (£9,997.35) to renovate and upgrade the kitchen

Each organisation demonstrated how their projects aligned with the council’s priorities which are community leadership to create a sense of pride in our place, promoting health and wellbeing and encouraging healthy life choices, creating a sustainable environment to protect future generations and supporting businesses and residents to deliver a prosperous local economy.

Chair of Cabinet Sub-Committee Grants and Leader of Harborough District Council, Cllr Phil Knowles, said: “Our £1 million Community Grant Fund has been a real success story and something this administration can be proud of. When we allocate funds to these projects we hear firsthand how the money will improve people’s quality of life which is the purpose of why we introduced this scheme.”

The £1 million Community Grant Fund will continue in 2025-26 and 2026-27. The remaining funding allocation from year one will be combined into a standalone underspend grant.

For more information about the Community Grant Fund visit: www.harborough.gov.uk/communitygrants