Crowborough grants: £53,424 to 20 groups, £60k open now

Twenty Crowborough community groups shared £53,424 from Wealden District Council’s councillor ward budgets in the scheme’s first year, and the six Crowborough councillors have another £60,000 between them to give away in the 2026/27 round. Applications for the new round have been open since 1 May and are decided as they arrive, so groups that wait risk finding a ward’s pot already spent. (Wealden District Council, Councillor Ward Budgets Scheme)

The council said on 29 July that £388,000 was awarded across the district in 2025/26 under the scheme, which gives each of its district councillors £10,000 a year to put into local projects; its examples included new sports equipment for Crowborough Hockey Club. (Wealden District Council, 29 July 2026) We went through the council’s published decision tables to see where Crowborough’s share went.

Who got what in Crowborough

The tables list 35 Crowborough decisions between 1 September 2025 and 27 March 2026, of which 30 were approved. Several groups applied to more than one ward councillor and had their request split, so the totals below combine every award to the same organisation. (Councillor Ward Budgets Scheme decision tables)

Source: Wealden District Council decision tables, amounts rounded to the pound.

The Scouts’ £5,000 came in four pieces: £2,500 from Crowborough Central’s Cllr Jane Clark (including an £833 uplift agreed in January), and £833 each from Cllr James Partridge (Crowborough North), Cllr Martyn Everitt (Crowborough St Johns) and Cllr Alison Arthur (Crowborough South West). A fifth request to Crowborough Jarvis Brook was not approved. The Men’s Shed’s £2,499 was similarly assembled from four councillors, in sums ranging from £1,352 down to £8.47. (decision tables)

Ward by ward

Crowborough Central (Cllr Jane Clark) and Crowborough South West (Cllr Alison Arthur) each committed their full £10,000. Crowborough Jarvis Brook (Cllr Gareth Owen-Williams) awarded £9,848, Crowborough North (Cllr James Partridge) £9,500 and Crowborough St Johns (Cllr Martyn Everitt) £9,376. Crowborough South East (Cllr Andrew Wilson) awarded £4,700, split between the Community Orchard and the Cricket Club, leaving over half of that ward’s budget unspent in the tables published. (decision tables)

Five Crowborough applications did not get money: Crowborough for Young People’s £2,847 request to replace IT equipment was rejected as not meeting the scheme criteria; a £371 dementia-support request from Connections Cafe to Crowborough Central was rejected because that ward’s funds had run out; and three others (two from Tester and Jones Bereavement Group and one from the Scouts) were not approved by the ward councillor. (decision tables)

Across the whole district, the published tables record 281 decisions and 234 approvals worth £370,738; the council’s own headline figure for the year is £388,000. (Wealden District Council, 29 July 2026; decision tables)

The 2026/27 round: rules and deadline

The scheme reopened on 1 May 2026, again with £10,000 per ward councillor. The council’s page gives two closing dates, 28 February 2027 in one paragraph and 31 March 2027 in another, so treat the earlier one as the safe deadline and check with the council if it matters. The guidance is explicit that many councillors decide on a first-come, first-served basis and asks groups to apply “well in advance”. (Councillor Ward Budgets Scheme)

The main rules, from the council’s scheme page:

• Grants run from £250 to £5,000 per organisation. Only one successful application is allowed per organisation, so a group seeking money from several councillors makes one application supported by all of them, and the total is still capped at £5,000.
• Applicants must be small, non-profit community and voluntary organisations benefiting Wealden residents. Other local authorities and public bodies, including parish and town councils, NHS bodies and schools, are not eligible, nor is any organisation that has had £20,000 or more from the district council in the previous two financial years, and grants are not paid to individuals.
• Projects are expected to be delivered in the ward applied to (or directly benefit it), contribute to the council’s strategy, and be completed within 12 months of the funds being received.
• The scheme will not pay for retrospective costs, regular running costs such as permanent staff salaries and utility bills, recoverable VAT, finance charges, or items bought to be gifted to individuals or resold (the council’s example is raffle prizes).

Applications go through the council’s online form, and the council’s contact for the scheme is councillorwardbudgets@wealden.gov.uk. (Councillor Ward Budgets Scheme)

What it means for you

• If you run a club, hall, PTA or community group in Crowborough, there is £60,000 on the table this year and last year’s tables show that a well-shaped £2,000 to £5,000 request has a good chance. Ask early: Crowborough Central ran dry before the end of last year’s round.
• Asking several councillors at once works. The Scouts, the Men’s Shed, Green Transition and Connections Cafe all built their totals from more than one councillor. Under this year’s rules that is done on a single form supported by each councillor, and the total is still capped at £5,000; the council’s page explains how.
• This money has an end date. The government has decided that a single new council will replace East Sussex County Council and the districts including Wealden from April 2028, with elections to it in May 2027 (East Sussex County Council); whether ward budgets survive that change is for the new council to decide, so this round and next year’s are the ones to plan for.
• You can check every decision yourself. The full tables, including rejected bids and any conflicts of interest declared, are on the scheme page.

See also our Crowborough planning news and what’s on in Crowborough.