Eight groups have been given Alton Town Council community grants totalling £28,770.90 for 2025-26.

Councillors had a £30,000 budget available when considering 12 applications totalling £84,145.42 at their meeting in Alton Town Hall on February 5.

Community grants of up to £10,000 are awarded to organisations judged to contribute to the whole community of Alton which are not usually capable of covering their full running costs - the grants can be used for part of these.

Receiving the full grant requested were the Alton Climate Action Network (£3,590 to cover core costs), the Basingstoke & Alton Cardiac Rehab Charity (£1,778.40 to install a screen and an audio-visual unit), The Friendship Café (£1,402.50 for 14 sessions of nature-related activities) and Home-Start Hampshire (£5,000 for essential support to families with children up to the age of 11).

Bushy Leaze Family Support received £9,000 to increase its capacity to support families (it requested £10,000) and Alton Community Association was given £6,000 to cover core funding (it asked for £8,000).

Two groups which each applied for £10,000 - Alton Counselling Service, to subsidise counselling fees for over-16s, and sight loss charity OpenSight, to benefit its Alton early years and Alton social groups - each received £1,000.

Not given a grant were the Alton Beer Festival, which wanted £4,374.52 to pay for four beer dispensers, couplings, cleaning and gas, Dogs for Autism, which asked for £10,000 towards training a dog to carry out specific tasks for an autistic person, and Miniland Farm, which requested £10,000 to partly fund a prefabricated wooden building.

Citizens Advice East Hampshire, which had asked for £10,000 to support the rent and service charge of a potential move to new premises, withdrew its application before the meeting.