Last month saw 6 community grants awarded by Kingston Council’s Surbiton Neighbourhood committee.

1. Italian-British Association provides Italian social, cultural and arts activities for the community. Granted £750 towards costs of running events.
2.  Surbiton Wildlife Group aims to improve Surbiton for wildlife and people paying specific attention to public green spaces and water features. The grant of £750 will be to carry out local wildlife surveys to build up a picture of what local wildlife exists, its numbers and day and night time movements.
3. Berrylands Women’s Club provides opportunities to socialise, have fun with educational opportunities and a chance to build new skills. Granted £500 to enable them to keep membership costs down as many members are pensioners on limited income.
4. The Surbiton Festival organises Surbiton’s popular annual festival which brings the whole town together. This year the event will be held between 11-26 September, including entertainment, a sports event, a regatta on the River Thames, a business show at Glenmore House and a river and blues voice festival.  The grant of £750 is to go towards the cost of accredited marshals required by the police and Transport for London
5. The Community Brain initiatives have included the Surbiton Food Festival, the King’s Soup and the Community Sports Day. The grant of £650  will go towards the organisation of the first Brighton Road Beach Party on 31 August to bring the community together and celebrate the Brighton Road.
6. The Surbiton Community Church offers a number of high quality services and events for the local Surbiton community with a particular focus on families. The £420 grant is for a Toddlers Teddy Bear Picnic on Friday, 24 July at Fishponds park.

These will be the last Surbiton neighbourhood grants, as Kingston Conservative run Council has changed the way money is given to community groups.

From the Council meeting on 14th July 2015 – “The current Neighbourhoods Grants Scheme be discontinued and be replaced with a new Scheme whereby individual Councillors, through the relevant Neighbourhood Manager or other appropriate officer, would be able to award funds to community projects within the Ward (or neighbourhood) area on the same basis as agreed by the Policy and Finance Committee, on 2 July 2015, in relation to the administration of the small and emerging grants programme. ”

This change was put through without any consultation with residents or the community groups. We are waiting to see how this will work in reality, as it seems not to have the correct checks and balances in place for spending tax payers money. I’m also concerned that much of the community activity is understandably centred around the town centre, in St Mark’s Ward, but the funds will be split equally between the 4 wards. Obviously, an activity in Surbiton town centre is attended by residents from across the area, so I hope the new scheme, when we get details of how it will work, will reflect this.

says Councillor Diane White