South Norfolk's £1m community grants close on 16 August. Two funds of £500,000 each, grants of £1,000 to £40,000, applied for through your district councillor.

South Norfolk Council’s two big community grant pots close to applications on Sunday 16 August, and because groups cannot apply directly, anyone hoping to get in needs to reach a district councillor in the next couple of days rather than fill in a form on the last night.

Between them the Community Action Fund and the Community Facilities Grant hold £1 million, split evenly at £500,000 each. Both opened on 1 April and both award grants of £1,000 to £40,000. The council urged groups to apply on 5 August, saying there was “less than two weeks left”.

The catch that will cost groups the money

Read the fund pages rather than the press release and the practical obstacle is plain. On both funds, “local District Councillors are responsible for considering and proposing applications”, and the council’s instruction to community groups is unambiguous: “Please contact your local district councillor, who will make an application for funding on your behalf.”

So the real deadline for a group is whenever its councillor needs the material, not midnight on the 16th. Councillors and their wards are listed on the South Norfolk councillors page, and the council’s communities team takes questions on 01603 430611 or at Communities@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk.

Two more details worth knowing before you ring. Every application must carry separate proof of the group’s bank details, which the council will accept as a copy, photo or scan of either a paying-in slip or the header of a bank statement. And applications go to the Grants and Awards Panel, which meets up to twice a year but, in the council’s own words, “may allocate the full budget at the first” meeting. A late application is not simply judged later; the money may already be gone.

What each fund is for

The Community Action Fund is the revenue-and-projects pot, for initiatives that “improve health, wellbeing and quality of life”. The council says it has recently funded mental health and wellbeing services, outdoor play areas and fitness equipment, and youth, sports and cultural programmes. The example it gives from this round is Pulham Men’s Shed, which had a £10,000 grant and used it to build a mud kitchen for children at Pulham CofE Primary Academy.

The Community Facilities Grant is new this year and is capital only: it funds “capital improvements to a community facility/building”, and the council names major refurbishments, solar panels and heat pumps as examples. If your village hall needs a roof, a boiler or insulation, this is the one.

Bar chart of South Norfolk Council's 2026/27 community funding streams: Community Action Fund £500,000, Community Facilities Grant £500,000, South Norfolk in Bloom £150,000 and members' ward funding £92,000
The four streams in South Norfolk Council's 2026/27 community funding package, from the council's own announcement of 9 March 2026

Why there is more money than usual

This is not a routine round. The council announced the package on 9 March as its “largest-ever” community funding, under the heading Big Community Investment. Councillors voted in February to raise the Community Action Fund to £500,000, which the council describes as a tenfold increase, and created the £500,000 Community Facilities Grant alongside it.

Two smaller streams sit outside the £1 million and outside the 16 August deadline. The South Norfolk in Bloom Fund holds £150,000 in matched funding for planting schemes, floral displays and habitats. Members’ ward funding has doubled from £1,000 to £2,000 per councillor, which across 46 councillors comes to a combined £92,000 that individual members can direct to small local projects.

The council’s deputy leader and chair of the community action panel, Cllr Kim Carsok, said in the 5 August appeal: “If your group has been thinking about a project, now is the time to act.”

What it means for you

Check you are actually in South Norfolk. This is district money, and the boundary does not follow the postal towns. Wymondham, Hethersett, Cringleford, Long Stratton, Diss, Harleston, Loddon, Poringland, Mulbarton and Bressingham are all in South Norfolk and eligible. Attleborough is in Breckland and is not covered by these funds, despite sharing an NR16 postcode area with South Norfolk villages. If you are unsure, gov.uk’s find your local council tool will settle it from your postcode.

Ring your councillor today, not at the weekend. The councillor has to consider the project and propose it, so a group turning up at the deadline with an idea and no paperwork is unlikely to get through.

Have the bank evidence ready. A photo of a paying-in slip or the header of a bank statement is enough, and its absence will hold up an otherwise good application.

If you miss it, the next round is a year away for the main funds. The 2026/27 window opened on 1 April, so a group that misses 16 August is looking at the following financial year, unless it can be helped from a councillor’s £2,000 ward allocation in the meantime.

More from Wymondham News: things to do in and around Wymondham, planning applications in the area and roadworks and travel updates.

Sources: South Norfolk Council’s Community Action Fund and Community Facilities Grant pages, and its news items of 9 March 2026 and 5 August 2026. District boundaries checked against Ordnance Survey and ONS data via the postcodes.io lookup. Always confirm deadlines with the council before relying on them.