Voluntary community groups have received grant funding from South Cambs District Council, totalling more than £170,000 in the past year.

Service Support Grants have been handed to 15 organisations in 2019/20 as part of a three-year agreement which will see them receive a total of £402,000 between them by the end of March 2022.

The grants are designed to support local community groups and organisations to deliver a range of services to residents. They focus on the themes of community transport, welfare advice, independent living, supporting parishes and communities, being fit to learn, and preventing and tackling homelessness along with housing advice.

The South Cambs branch of Citizens Advice received £85,000 in grants – with an identical commitment for the next two years.

In the last year, advisors at the Citizens Advice Bureau we funded saw more than 5,700 residents from South Cambridgeshire, helping them with a raft of issues including welfare rights, debt and money advice and employment issues.

The Royston and District Community Transport (R&DCT) scheme has also received £6,000 in the last year. This funding has helped hundreds of elderly South Cambridgeshire residents make essential trips that otherwise they would have struggled to make.

Dr John Hedges, R&DCT chairman, said: “In the past year, thanks to the support grant from SCDC, R&DCT has supported 534 frail and elderly South Cambs residents to attend medical appointments at their GP practice or hospital on 2,512 occasions, go out for essential shopping 1,158 times and enjoy social outings on 836 occasions.

“Throughout the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, R&DCT maintained its service for essential hospital visits, for procedures such as dialysis, that could not be provided remotely by health service providers.”

Chair of SCDC’s grants advisory committee, Cllr Jose Hales, said: “So many local voluntary organisations have had an especially tough time throughout 2020 as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, so it was heartwarming to see how these grants have made a real difference during the last year.”

Other groups to receive funding include Arts & Minds, Disability Cambridgeshire and Home Start Royston.