Grants of £1,000 to £3,000 have gone to a composting hub at Garon Park, a repair cafe, a bike refurbisher, a homelessness charity, Frostbite and a uniform swap.

Six community organisations in Southend have won grants from the first round of the SUEZ Southend Community Fund, sharing a pot of £12,000.

The fund awards grants of £1,000 to £3,000 each, so six winners means most of the pot has gone out in awards of around £2,000. It is run by SUEZ, the company that has held the council’s waste collection, street cleansing and recycling contract since April 2025, and applications closed on 22 July (SUEZ).

The council has named the six winners and what each will do with the money (Southend-on-Sea City Council).

Who got what

Organisation What the grant pays for
Wellbeing at Garon Park A Community Food Waste and Composting Hub, turning food waste into compost for local gardens, orchards and biodiversity projects
Trust Links Expanding its ReRooted hub in the city centre, including Repair Cafe sessions and community planting
Just Ride Expanding its refurbished bike programme, giving unwanted bicycles from Southend’s recycling centres a second life
St Vincent’s Centre Southend A Green Pioneer Community Hub for people facing homelessness, poverty and poor mental health, using gardening and food growing
Project Southchurch Supporting the Frostbite community event
Friars Primary School and Nursery PTA Enhancing its pre-loved school uniform scheme

The council has not published the individual award amounts, only the total and the band each grant falls within.

Frostbite returns on 5 December

The Project Southchurch grant funds an event with a date attached, which makes it the most immediately useful of the six for readers.

Frostbite runs on Saturday 5 December, the fifth Southchurch Christmas experience, hosted along Southchurch Road. It is free. The organisers say they are hoping to close the road for the event to allow more stalls, choirs and entertainment, but that is an ambition rather than an agreed closure, and no traffic order for it has been published (Project Southchurch).

The same group has an earlier date in the diary. Its art trail, rebranded ArtEast, runs from 19 to 26 September, in shops along Southchurch Road between Chase Road and Lifstan Way, opening on Saturday 19 September.

What the fund is, and whether it comes round again

The fund was announced on 22 June 2026 and is a total annual pot of £12,000, which means there should be another round. SUEZ describes it as backing projects that are “locally driven, community-focused and ready to deliver”, and it is open to community groups, not-for-profit organisations and community businesses across Southend. The first round ran through ActionFunder.

James Gatter, SUEZ’s contract manager, said the quality of applications “demonstrated the incredible work taking place across Southend”. Cllr Cheryl Nevin, cabinet member for civic pride, said the projects “will have a lasting positive impact for residents”.

Neither SUEZ nor the council has published a date for round two.

What it means for you

  • If you run a community group in Southend, this is a small, local, annually repeating pot in a range most grant funds ignore. Watch for the round two announcement on the council’s news feed and on SUEZ’s press releases.
  • If you need an affordable bike, Just Ride’s refurbishment programme takes bicycles left at Southend’s household waste recycling centres and puts them back into use.
  • If your child’s uniform is outgrown rather than worn out, the Friars Primary PTA scheme is one of the funded projects.
  • Put 5 December in the diary for Frostbite on Southchurch Road, and 19 to 26 September for ArtEast.
  • Southend’s own recycling centres and collection arrangements are set out on our bin collection days page.

Sources