Penzance Council has recently awarded over £25,000 in grant funding to a diverse range of local community organisations. From sea to shore, from reading to feeding, Councillors resolved to support six grant applications for a wide range of ongoing projects, including the refit of a historic Cornish fishing boat and the provision of healthy lunches for the homeless.
Penzance Council provides grants to local community groups and charities who are working to benefit the residents and environment of the local area.
The grant funding budget was increased for 2025/2026, making more grants available for community organisations. To ensure that grant funding is available throughout the financial year, four defined grant windows have been introduced to spread the funding budget.
During this last financial year, Penzance Council awarded £70,000 in grant funding to directly benefit local residents. For this final grant window of 2025/2026, funding was awarded to six community organisations including Mounts Bay Lugger Association, Friends of Mousehole Rock Pool, Penzance LitFest, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Growing Links CIC and Bewnans Kernow.
Mounts Bay Lugger Association
Since the Mounts Bay Lugger Association (MBLA) was established in 1994, more than 2000 members and volunteers have benefited from sailing or maintaining their 121-year-old Cornish lugger, Happy Return.
Being one of just two luggers left in Cornwall which are accessible to anyone to sail, Happy Return gives people the opportunity to engage with the sea and learn about traditional maritime skills. Working with local sea cadets, this opportunity is also extended to young people, already expressing an interest in maritime activities, to indulge a seagoing experience on a historic fishing boat.
In 2025, a full marine survey of Happy Return identified issues requiring maintenance, a large part of which was subsequently carried out by volunteers. A grant of £4,128.93 from Penzance Council will now go towards the costs of the next phase of this major refit, which focuses on essential work below the waterline, requiring the lugger to be hauled out of the water and worked on by specialist shipwrights.
MBLA chairperson James Walker commented:
“The Mounts Bay Lugger Association are over the moon to receive a supporting grant from Penzance Council. This grant guarantees we have the funds not only to complete the refit of our 121-year-old Cornish Lugger Happy Return, but also to ensure we will be sailing and serving the community from our home in Penzance for years to come.”
Friends of Mousehole Rock Pool
Mousehole Rock Pool has been a much-loved part of the community since it was built in 1969, with generations of children learning to swim in its waters over the years.
After it fell into disrepair, the Friends of Mousehole Rock Pool was established with the aim of restoring the tidal pool to its original condition and ensuring it is accessible and preserved for future generations.
Thanks to the fundraising and volunteer efforts by the Friends of Mousehole Rock Pool, an extensive restoration project was completed last year. However, sadly the pool was damaged by a storm soon after.
A grant of £4,887.47 from Penzance Council was immediately put to use to repair a portion of the western wall, buttress and a small area of path at the pool.
Trustees of the Friends of Mousehole Rock Pool commented:
“We are really pleased that the Mousehole Rock Pool restoration project has recently received grant funding from Penzance Council.
“This generous award has allowed our contractors to install a concrete buttress on the western wall which will give added protection to the newly replaced & pinned pathway. The work was carried out in challenging weather conditions and was completed just before our marine licence expired.
“Without the financial support of Penzance Council this vital piece of work could not have taken place. We are all extremely grateful for their investment, encouragement and support.”
Penzance LitFest
Often described as ‘the friendliest litfest in the UK,’ the Penzance LitFest takes place annually in July, attracting local and national writers to talk about their books, run writing workshops and host community outreach events. Run entirely by volunteers, the festival is the high point of the year for readers and writers in Penzance, the surrounding West Cornwall area and visitors from across the South West and further afield.
As Penzance LitFest grows each year, a grant of £4,887.47 from Penzance Council will help to attract high profile and in-demand authors to the festival line-up.
Richard Williams from Penzance LitFest commented:
“We are grateful for the grant received from Penzance Council which will enable us to cover the core costs of travel and hospitality for authors and other contributors to the LitFest.
“This, in turn, will enable other parts of the budget to be directed towards other priorities such as the Exploding Words initiative which works with local primary schools across the Penwith area to encourage writing and general literacy skills.
“With the help of the Penzance Council funding, the Penzance LitFest will continue to increase its growth and appeal across Cornwall and nationally.”
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is a contemporary visual art organisation, connecting Cornwall with visual arts for the benefit of the community. Running a year-round programme of exhibitions and education across two galleries and offsite, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange are deeply embedded in the community with an extended network of local health and social care and community partners with whom they continue to build projects.
With the help of a Penzance Council grant of £4,870.85, the gallery will begin a new long-term social engagement programme from May 2026 in partnership with St Petrocs – a charity working to end homelessness in Cornwall – and the National Portrait Gallery (NPG). Together, they will develop a community-curated exhibition at The Exchange that amplifies the voices and lived experiences of people who are homeless or insecurely-homed in Cornwall.
Rebecca English, Programme Curator and lead on this project commented:
“Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is delighted to have secured funding from Penzance Council to support a community-focused partnership project with St Petrocs and the National Portrait Gallery.
“Working with St Petrocs’ clients as Community Curators, the project will explore themes of identity, home, and belonging, creating space for voices rarely heard in cultural settings while supporting participants’ wellbeing, confidence, and connection through sustained creative engagement.”
Growing Links CIC
Growing Links CIC is a grassroots organisation aiming to alleviate food poverty in Penzance and the surrounding area. As well as offering community spaces for growing organic fruit and veg, running workshops and courses, and providing community health & wellbeing workers, Growing Links also runs Street Food Project. Relocating to the new Safe & Well Hub at the former John Daniel Centre in Heamoor in 2024, where a Penzance Council grant of £8,313 helped to buy and install a fully equipped commercial kitchen, Street Food Project has been providing hot meals every evening to individuals experiencing homelessness or living in food poverty for many years.
This latest grant of £4,887.47 from Penzance Council will enable Street Food Project to offer healthy lunches for homeless and vulnerably housed people with complex needs, whilst also providing a warm, safe space.
Lynne Dyer, director of Growing Links CIC commented:
“Growing Links CIC has welcomed a grant from the Town Council to support its community lunch programme.
“The funding will be used to buy healthy local ingredients for the weekly lunches, which are open to everyone and help ensure that people across the community can access a hot, healthy meal. The lunches are particularly important for those who may be struggling financially or experiencing homelessness and those that feel social isolation and loneliness.
“As well as providing nutritious food, the lunches offer a welcoming space where people can meet, share conversation and feel part of the community. This grant will help ensure the programme can continue to reach those who need it most while keeping the lunches open and accessible to all.
“We thank Penzance Council for its support in helping bring people together and making sure no one in the community has to go without a warm meal.”
Bewnans Kernow
Located in the old Penzance Library on Morrab Road, Bewnans Kernow runs Cornish Heritage in Penzance, offering a variety of heritage activities, fortnightly local history talks, Cornish classes and other Cornish language activities.
Bewnans Kernow has successfully applied to the National Lottery ‘Awards for All’ programme for £20,000 to run a fourteen-month history project called ‘Old Knowledge Penzance.’ This project will celebrate the families who have lived in Penzance for generations and their knowledge of the town.
Guided by input from long-standing residents the project will seek to fill gaps in the understanding to what it was like to live in Penzance during the 20th century as well as in earlier times. The aim is to build up a picture that can be shared more widely across Penzance and be handed down to younger generations.
A grant of £1,901.10 from Penzance Council will pay for exhibition costs so that the results of the project can be displayed and shared with the local community.
Jane Howells, director of Bewnans Kernow commented:
“We thank Penzance Council for this grant which will help to meet the costs of running exhibitions at Cornish Heritage in Penzance using the information gained from the ‘Old Knowledge Penzance’ project.
“‘Old Knowledge Penzance’ is a project to celebrate the families who have lived in Penzance for generations and their knowledge of the town. The aim is to build up a picture of Penzance in earlier years through informal and interesting discussion.
“The ‘Old Knowledge Penzance’ project meets fortnightly, on Monday evenings and Thursday afternoons.”
Further Grant Applications
The first grant window of 2026/2027 closes on 16 March. Local community groups and charities can find out more about how to apply on the Penzance Council website: www.penzance-tc.gov.uk/grants/ or by contacting the council offices (Tel: 01736 363405 or Email: [email protected]
