Mid Sussex District Council has approved five community grants totalling £16,855.
The applications from 1st East Grinstead Scout Group, Haywards Heath 10th Brownies, Inkpots Youth Mentoring, Meridian FM Radio, and The Kindness Cooperation CIC, were given the nod during a meeting of the cabinet on Monday (July 6).
The Scout Group will receive £5,000 to buy noticeboards and tables to help transform the Scout Hall, in Moat Road, into a ‘fully functional, welcoming, and inclusive community space’.
The Brownies will receive £2,500 to put towards the cost of taking the girls on residential trips to Brownsea Island – home of the Scouts and Guiding movement – and the New Forest.
Inkpots Youth Mentoring, based in Burgess Hill, will receive £3,280 to deliver a peer mentoring project for Year 6 pupils at Southway Junior School ‘to help support the development of self-confidence, resilience, and a sense of belonging’.
Meridian FM Radio, a volunteer-run community radio station serving East Grinstead and the surrounding area, will receive £5,000 for new broadcast computers, a modern digital mixing desk and associated audio equipment.
The Kindness Cooperation CIC works with other organisations to deliver projects with positive social impacts. The CIC asked for £3,075 to help a group of up to 12 A-level students from a Mid Sussex school to meet with a local retiree to capture their life stories.
Council officers were not satisfied that this represented sufficient value for money, but approved a grant of £1,075 for printing and celebration costs.
Four other applications were not approved.
This was the first round of applications for a slice of the £135,235 2026/27 pot of grant money – £35,235 of which was carried over from the previous year. It attracted 29 expressions of interest, with 17 meeting the eligibility criteria.
Anne-Marie Cooke, cabinet member for communities & communication, said it was ‘disappointing’ that eight of those didn’t go on to submit a formal application.
The applications which were not successful came from 1st Turners Hill and Crawley Down Scout Group; Friends, Families and Travellers; the Kangaroos charity for people with learning disabilities; and the Sussex Strength and Wellbeing Community.
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