Hart has named the 28 groups sharing £124,731 in Here for Hart grants, from an Odiham youth club to an Eversley defibrillator. £320,000 closes 14 September.

Hart District Council has published the full list of the first Here for Hart community grants. Twenty-eight organisations have been awarded money, across 29 separate projects, and the sums are now on the council’s own grants page. (Hart District Council)

The awards range from £1,100 for substance awareness and mental health education to sixteen grants at the £5,000 maximum. Add the published figures up and they come to £124,731.

This was the smaller of two streams. A further £320,000 is still open, for single projects of up to £50,000, and applications close on Monday 14 September.

Bar chart of Here for Hart community grant awards by category, from community spaces and facilities at £37,100 down to environmental projects at £10,000

Who got the money

Supporting young people and families, £34,214 across seven awards:

  • Cornerstone Counselling, youth counselling: £5,000
  • Home-Start, family support groups: £5,000
  • RMD Adventure Learning, to set up Odiham Youth Club: £5,000
  • Hart Swimming Club, development pathway for young swimmers: £5,000
  • 1st Crookham Scout Group, archery participation: £4,970
  • Vision 4 Youth, youth support groups: £4,936
  • North Hampshire Deaf Children’s Society, support for deaf children and families: £4,308

Community spaces and facilities, £37,100 across eight awards:

  • St Barnabas Church, outdoor community hub: £5,000
  • Hook-Odiham Rugby Football Club, community kitchen: £5,000
  • Hart Players, replacement curtains at Blackwater and Hawley Memorial Hall: £5,000
  • Odiham Parish Council, Friendship Corner gardens and playground: £5,000
  • Citizens Advice, IT equipment and volunteer development: £5,000
  • Eversley Parish Council, public solar-powered defibrillator: £5,000
  • St Peter’s Church, accessible entrance: £3,900
  • Hook, Odiham and Hartley Wintney Lions, community defibrillators: £3,200

Health, wellbeing and inclusion, £17,000 across five awards:

  • Yateley Industries, accessible wellbeing garden: £5,000
  • Open Sight, support for visually impaired residents: £4,820
  • Andover Mind, therapeutic art sessions: £3,430
  • Age Concern, support for older residents: £2,650
  • Sasha’s Project, substance awareness and mental health education: £1,100

Sport, recreation and participation, £14,705 across three awards:

  • Fleet Cricket Club, upgrading women’s and girls’ facilities: £5,000
  • Yateley Silverbacks, inclusive basketball provision: £5,000
  • Hawley Lake Sail Training Centre, paddlesport expansion: £4,705

Culture, arts and community events, £11,712 across three awards:

  • Winchfield Festival, community music programme: £5,000
  • Hart Players, stage equipment at Blackwater and Hawley Memorial Hall: £5,000
  • Holy Ridiculous Dramatic Society, community theatre activities: £1,712

Environment and community resilience, £10,000 across three awards:

  • St Mary’s Church, Eversley, low-carbon heating systems: £5,000
  • Hart Allotment Society, sustainable growing and rainwater harvesting: £2,500
  • Greenoaks School, environmental awareness activities: £2,500

Hart Players appears twice because it won two separate awards for the same hall, which is why 29 grants went to 28 organisations. The council’s page prints the Age Concern figure as “£2.650”; we have read that as £2,650.

The round paid out more than the council says it did

The council’s news release of 28 August describes this as “the £120,000 Here for Hart Community Grants scheme”, shared with 28 organisations. The grants page says the groups “shared almost £120,000”. (Hart District Council)

The awards the council itself lists add up to £124,731, which is £4,731 more than that. The difference is not explained on either page.

Nothing in the published figures suggests the total fund has changed. When Here for Hart launched on 13 July it was described as £440,000 in two streams, and £120,000 plus the £320,000 still on offer comes to exactly that. (Hart District Council, 13 July)

The youth pledge

The July launch said “at least £40,000 of the funding will be dedicated to projects supporting young people”. That promise covers the whole £440,000, not this round alone.

The young people and families category in this round came to £34,214. Other awards will reach young people too. Yateley Silverbacks’ inclusive basketball took £5,000, and Greenoaks School £2,500 for environmental awareness work. But the council has not published a running total against the pledge. On the category headings alone the first round does not reach £40,000, so the balance falls to the £50,000 round.

What it means for you

If your group missed this round, the larger stream is still open and closes on 14 September. It is for projects up to £50,000 that keep delivering after the money runs out, and the council’s guidance is explicit that sustainability has to be part of the bid.

Budget for paying first. The council’s own guidance notes say the grant “will be paid retrospectively on receipt of an invoice detailing project expenditure”, once a signed grant agreement and bank details are in. You also have to keep receipts for every item over £250, and failure to produce them “could lead to the funds being claimed back”. (Guidance notes, £50,000 projects)

If that is a barrier, the council asks you to email h4hcg@hart.gov.uk rather than give up on applying.

If you are not a charity, check the exclusions first. Individuals, sole traders and any application that would benefit a commercial business are out, and so are groups without a governing committee or board.

What happens to Here for Hart next

Councillors look at the scheme’s future on Tuesday 8 September. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee meets at 7pm in the Council Chamber, and takes a presentation on the programme for 2026 to 2028. (Agenda, 8 September)

That report says the team administered £187,000 in grants over the last 12 months, alongside a refreshed Here for Hart directory now getting close to 2,000 page views a month. It also carries a pointed line from the 2025 Corporate Peer Challenge: the council “should think about how to position the good work it does, for example through Here for Hart, to be continued in a future unitary organisation”. (Here for Hart 2026 to 2028, agenda item 6)

Update, 11 September 2026: when this was published, Hart District Council was due to be replaced under local government reorganisation in Hampshire. The government withdrew that decision on 7 September and is reviewing the programme (our report). If reorganisation returns, whether a fund of this kind survives it is, on the council’s own account, an open question.

Our earlier report on the round that has just closed sets out the eligibility rules in full: Hart grants: £50,000 for local groups. Local events and activities in the area are listed on our things to do in Fleet page.