£500,000 proposed to support community projects in Lincolnshire

It has been recommended that Lincolnshire county councillors back plans to allocate a total of £500,000 towards supporting local schemes and grassroot organisations across the county.

Officials said the Councillor Community Grant Fund will help councillors to deliver initiatives which will benefit local residents.

Councillors have broadly welcomed the proposals, but some have raised concerns about the perception of political bias surrounding which projects are awarded the money.

At a scrutiny meeting on Thursday, May 28, Coun Danny Brookes (Reform UK – Ingoldmells Rural) said: “I welcome this. This is going to help all the residents in certain areas that achieve this.”

Christopher O’Rourke, head of communications and engagement at the council, said: “Councillors can support multiple applications to the strategic fund.

“With those multiple opportunities to bring it through this chamber, plus publishing all the details of all the accepted grants online, we hope to make it as transparent as possible in where that money is going.

“This committee can then discuss areas that might be left out as it were – areas that may not be receiving as much funding as others – and we can suggest steps that we might take to be able to do that.”

Coun Brenda Collier (Reform UK – Birchwood) also backed the proposals, saying: “It’s brilliant that we’re getting this money for our communities.”

But Coun Ian Carrington (Conservative – Potterhanworth and Coleby) was concerned about alleged political influence associated with this funding.

He added: “I am uneasy about the councillor involvement element. It may be completely unjustified – and I’m not casting any kind of aspersion – but I think setting that up as a system, does that not create the risk that there will be allegations of political bias – however unfair and however unjustified built into the system? Because we’re talking about large sums of money here that people are going to be very keen to get for their communities.

“So, I’ll listen carefully to the rest of the debate, but I did want to express some considerable unease about that aspect – although the general principle is one that I would support.”

The fund will be split into two separate funding streams.

The first is a divisional grant where each county electoral division will be allocated £3,000 for the local councillor to identify suitable community projects to receive grants.

These grants must be spent within a year of the funding being awarded.

The second stream is a strategic fund of £290,000 which will be open to all councillors to put forward bids for relevant, larger projects.

Councillors can identify suitable community projects for funding which are between £3,001 and £15,000.

The bids will be assessed by council officers and members against an eligibility criteria and to ensure that the schemes are eligible to go ahead.

The budget was agreed by full council in February 2026 for the 2026/27 financial year and included £500,000 to create a one-off Councillor Community Grant Fund.

The plans will be presented to the executive councillor for community engagement, Coun Robert Gibson (Reform) where the final decision will be made.