Augean North Community Fund

The Augean North Community Fund has approximately £600,000 available per year. The budget is funded by donations made by Augean North Limited (Augean North) under the Landfill Communities Fund from its Port Clarence landfill site in Stockton-on-Tees.

Normally the minimum grant is £10,000. The maximum you can apply for is £100,000.

Groups awarded funding must fully complete their project before they can submit another application to the Fund.

Project Locations

Projects must be located within 5 miles of the Port Clarence landfill site (please see map below). Priority may be given to applications received for projects located within 2.5 miles of the landfill site.

Closing Dates

There are two funding rounds each year:

Public Access Requirements:

Projects must be available and open to the general public as defined by ENTRUST – as a minimum, for 4 evenings a week, or 2 days a week, or 104 days a year.

Who Can Apply?

Eligible organisations, who can apply for funding include:

• Voluntary organisations, community groups / associations, sports clubs (note exclusion criteria regarding membership restrictions), local and national Charities
• Parish / Community Councils / Town Councils
• Local Authorities
• Social enterprises and Community Interest Companies operating on a non-profit-distributing basis. These are defined by Social UK as ‘businesses that trade to tackle social problems, improve communities, people’s life chances, or the environment. They make their money from selling goods and services in the open market, but they reinvest their profits back into the business or the local community’. These organisations must have a minimum of three unrelated Directors, that also do not reside at the same address.
• Schools* (if the wider community can benefit from the project).

* Grants awarded to schools can only fund the proportion of project costs that relates to the community usage of the project. This is known as proportionality. For example, if a project costs £50,000 and the school will use the facility 70% of the time, the maximum grant available from the Augean Fund would be 30% of the total project cost (i.e. £15,000). The remaining 70% must be funded from other sources.

To be eligible to apply, an organisation must:

• Have a written constitution, a set of rules, or a governing document and a bank or building society account, held in the name of the organisation, in place before applying for a grant
• Be run on a not-for-profit basis
• Projects should be based at a project site which must be owned or leased by the applying organisation. If your organisation neither owns the project site, nor has a lease with a minimum of 5 years remaining, you are not eligible to apply. The lease must be active before any application is made. Letters of intent or draft lease agreements are not accepted.

Project Purpose:

Grants are available for community projects delivering capital improvements to public amenities. Examples may include:

• Village halls
• Nature reserves
• Village greens
• Community centres
• Public playgrounds
• Cycle paths
• Sports fields and facilities
• Country parks

Exclusions:

Grants will not be available for:

• Membership-based sports clubs and facilities (e.g. bowls and golf clubs), unless membership is open to the general public without undue restriction
• Commercial organisations
• Individuals
• Projects that are considered statutory requirements
• Core cost funding
• Retrospective funding (i.e. funding can only be requested for works that will begin / expenditure that will be incurred AFTER our funding decision has been made and a formal grant Contract issued)
• Bus services, minibus services, or vehicles
• Projects at hospitals, or hospices, or day care centres
• Any works to public highways
• Staff posts and costs where they are not based, or specifically undertaking works, at the actual project site
• Projects to deliver visual enhancements (i.e. ‘a view’), as this does not improve, maintain or provide a general public amenity
• Village or town centre enhancements, such as walkways, street works or signage
• CD’s, web-sites or remote interpretation about a site
• Public car parks, unless they are specific to a general public amenity
• Public conveniences
• Allotments, or fruit growing projects
• Charity buildings, offices of charities, Citizens’ Advice offices and advice centres
• Large scale perimeter / security fencing programmes that do not directly enhance the public amenity
• Land purchase (unless there has been prior discussion with GrantScape)
• Community shops
• Church lead roofing replacement unless active steps have been taken to prevent future theft from occurring and an alarm system is installed. Applications for installation of an alarm system are welcome.

Judging Criteria

The main criteria used when assessing applications received will be:

• The level of community support for and involvement in the project
• The local community benefit and enjoyment which will result from the project

Other factors that will also be considered when assessing the application include:

• The ability of the applicant to deliver the project
• Projects located within 2.5 miles of the landfill site may receive priority consideration; however, distance is only one factor in the overall assessment of the application.
• How the work will be continued after the project has been completed, i.e. its sustainability and legacy
• Value for money
• Match funding is not required but priority may be given to groups that can demonstrate efforts have been made to fund raise towards the project costs internally, or that grant applications to other funders have been attempted
• For projects that are for the conservation of the built heritage (e.g. buildings of architectural interest and/or places of religious worship) priority may be given to projects that have the widest community access and usage

Contributing Third Party (CTP) Payment

Each grant awarded will require a donation to be made to Augean Ltd so that the grant can be released by GrantScape. This is called a Contributing Third Party (CTP) donation. The CTP donation covers Augean’s costs in providing monies for the grant through the Landfill Communities Fund, plus associated fees.

In simple terms, each £11.50 of CTP donation will release £100 of funding for the project.

The application form asks groups to identify an individual or organisation who would be willing to make this CTP donation if they are awarded a grant.

Detailed information on why CTP donations are necessary, who can provide these and how to calculate the approximate amount required is provided in GrantScape’s quick reference guide: “Contributing Third Party (CTP) Guidance”. This document is also available as part of the online application pack.

Important Notes

The Augean North Community Fund uses an online application process. Applications in other formats will not, therefore, be accepted.

If your group is not able to complete an online application form due to specific communication requirements, please contact GrantScape so that we can help you with alternative arrangements.

Applications received after a closing date will be automatically submitted to the next funding round, if available.

If, after reading the above, you are confident that your project is eligible, please click Next, below: