The money will help with the installation of solar roof panels at the brand new purpose-built hall which provides a central hub for community cohesion. The village hall is one of 19 community groups across East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton and Hove to benefit in this round from the £3.1 million community fund set up by the offshore wind farm last autumn. Chris Tomlinson, development and stakeholder manager for the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm said: “We were particularly encouraged by applicants such as Ashurst Village Hall, taking refreshing and progressive approaches to energy generation for their community building, which will save costs in the longer term.” The new hall, which was officially opened in July 2015, already benefits from an air source heat pump and under-floor heating system. The Rampion Fund is designed to help fund local projects, particularly those with links to the environment and ecology, climate change and energy, as well as those that work to improve community facilities, with some consideration for energy generation and use. It is managed by Sussex Community Foundation, a local grant-making charity. It supports the local community, from Littlehampton Harbour in the west, to Beachy Head in the east and up to the A272 near Twineham in the north. The second round of grants were announced on July 25 which saw a total of £230,249 given. Kevin Richmond, chief executive at Sussex Community Foundation, said: “We were delighted with the quality of the applications we received, over 50 per cent of which were from groups that had never applied to us before. “That was very encouraging as we are always looking to reach out to sections of the community that need support from our growing band of fund-holders and donors.” Another group to benefit is Community Transport Sussex who keep the community connected through the provision of accessible transport. The £45,500 grant will enable the group to replace the ageing diesel Henfield community bus with a new more eco-efficient mini-bus and two fully electric wheelchair accessible vehicles. This will mean the group will be able to provide approximately 9,000 additional passenger journeys in the area and help hundreds more people. The deadline for the next round of applications to the Rampion Fund is Friday 14th September 2018. For more information, visit www.sussexgiving.org.uk/rampion or call 01273 409440. Grants of between £1,000 and £10,000 are available, with higher grants up to £50,000 for larger capital projects subject to matched funding.