CHANGES will be made to the way in which organisations can apply for grants from the Hinkley Point C Community Impact Mitigation (CIM) fund in an attempt to increase the number of successful applicants.

The changes are being discussed as seven applications have already been turned down and five more applications looked set to be turned down at a council meeting last night.

West Somerset Council has control over the £4million given by EDF Energy to distribute to organisations to mitigate the impact of its nuclear power project. From the fund, £2million has been allocated to West Somerset.

The current application process involves submitting an ‘expression of interest’ form to West Somerset Council and, if eligible, applicants are invited to submit a full application to be considered by the Hinkley Point C Obligations Board – which consists of representatives from EDF, Sedgemoor District Council, Somerset County Council and West Somerset Council.

The board recommends approval or disapproval of any projects to the full council. However, most projects are rejected because the applications do not prove that they are directly affected by the Hinkley C development.

“We want people to be successful,” said Cllr Kate Kravis. “We want to make the application process more specific so that when applications come to the board they stand a good chance of getting the funding.

“Now that might be through a more thorough initial application process, or through giving councillor help to organisations with their applications.”

Porlock Bay Shellfish Project is set to receive £800 for a website to promote the project, after initially being rejected back in November for not showing how the project will be directly impacted by Hinkley C.

Roger Hall, a member of Porlock Futures, the group behind the Porlock Bay Shellfish Project, said: “West Somerset Council’s Economic Regeneration team were able to help me by providing information from their own economic analysis of the Porlock area so that we could show how Porlock tourism could be affected.

“This was enough to be able to qualify for the grant.

“I cannot praise the WSC Economic Regeneration team enough for the help that they gave to me and the Porlock Futures group.”

However, not everybody is convinced. Graham Story, Allerford and Selworthy Community Hall treasurer, said that the committee will not be resubmitting an application which was previously rejected for money towards refurbishing the hall.

He said: “We were invited to submit an application form which we spent a lot of time on, and we thought we stood a chance of getting the money.

“It wasn’t clear how specific you had to be about how Hinkley C would affect the project so we were rejected.

“We won’t be applying again and have applied to other places to help us get the money.”