The funding is being distributed through South Oxfordshire District Council’s Councillor Community Grant Scheme, which offers up to £7,500 per councillor for non-profit organisations, including voluntary groups, and town and parish councils.

Georgina Heritage, cabinet member for communities at South Oxfordshire District Council, said: “Out of all the grants we offer this one is personal for our council members.

“We’re able to directly support organisations in our ward that we see make a difference to our communities every day.

“We give organisations plenty of time to get in touch with their ward member and discuss funding they need, but we would encourage them to get those emails or phone calls in early so that we can review the projects and funding being requested.”

Past recipients have included mental health support groups for children, sporting equipment, memorial benches, and solar panels for community buildings.

In the 2024/25 round, the charity TRAIN was awarded funding to help plan and set up activities for young people in Didcot and Wallingford over the summer holidays.

Ben Drabble, CEO of TRAIN, said: “For a lot of our young people, summer can be a really isolating time.

“This programme meant they had something to look forward to and experiences they’ll remember.

“Some of them did things they’d never done before.”

Applications for the 2024/25 round opened on Monday, August 17, and will close at 12pm on Friday, December 4.

Full details are available on the council’s grants webpage.

Tokamak Energy, based at Milton Park, has partnered with US firms Type One Energy and AECOM to help develop the UK’s first private-sector-led fusion power plant.

A fusion power plant is a nuclear power plant because it generates energy by changing the nucleus of atoms.

Fusion power is a method of electric power generation from heat released by nuclear fusion reactions.

No location has been publicly announced for this new plant.

Tokamak Energy employs more than 300 people in Oxfordshire and is helping anchor high-skilled clean energy jobs in the county, supported by wider Government investment in UK fusion research and development.

Ed Miliband

The Government has committed more than £2.5 billion to fusion research and development across the country, supporting the infrastructure, skills and partnerships needed to help British fusion companies grow.

This includes Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production, the Government-backed programme to build a prototype fusion power plant in the UK, where Tokamak Energy has been involved as part of the wider UK fusion supply chain, as well as UK-US research collaboration involving companies such as Tokamak Energy.

That backing is helping create the conditions for Tokamak Energy to work with American partners, attract investment, and develop the technologies needed to bring fusion power closer to reality.

The Government’s Fusion Strategy sets out a long-term path to commercial fusion energy and supports the UK’s ambition to become a world leader in the technology.

The strategy is expected to support up to 10,000 jobs by 2030 while driving investment into communities across the UK.

Foreign secretary Ed Miliband said: “Fusion has the potential to strengthen our energy security, create skilled jobs and drive growth here in the UK.

“Having led the Government’s work on clean energy, I know how important it is to back British companies developing the technologies of the future.

“Through partnerships with countries like the United States, we are helping firms such as Tokamak Energy attract investment, scale up and keep the UK at the forefront of next-generation clean energy.”

Ross Morgan, Tokamak Energy’s Fusion managing director, said: “Fusion will transform global energy markets as a clean, limitless, on-demand power source of the future. But we cannot do it on our own.

“Strong partnerships with the UK and US Governments are invaluable to Tokamak Energy as we scale up and work together to unlock the power of the sun here on Earth.”

Tokamak Energy is also working with the US Department of Energy and the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to advance the science and technology needed for future fusion power plants, using the company’s record-breaking fusion machine at Milton Park.

Minister for energy Michael Shanks said: “Fusion is one of the most exciting technologies being developed in the UK today, with the potential to create skilled jobs, attract investment and generate virtually limitless energy.

“Close collaboration with the US is helping British companies such as Tokamak Energy grow, innovate and bring fusion power closer to reality.”

UK-US collaboration on fusion has grown in recent years. A formal fusion energy partnership signed in 2023 boosted joint work between the two countries, while a first-of-its-kind project with Tokamak Energy in 2024 is helping advance lithium research, an important part of developing future fusion power plants.

In 2025, the UK and US also agreed a landmark nuclear partnership, deepening cooperation on advanced nuclear technologies and clean energy.

In September, the UK and US will co-host the Global Fusion Policy Summit in London, bringing together countries, and fusion industry leaders and experts, to help accelerate fusion development and commercialisation.

Fusion is expected to become a multi‑trillion‑pound global market in the second half of the century, presenting a major long‑term growth opportunity for the UK.

STEP is the Government-backed programme to develop a prototype fusion power plant in the UK and show how fusion could one day provide low-carbon power.

Tokamak Energy has contributed expertise to the wider STEP supply chain, reflecting Oxfordshire’s role at the heart of the UK’s fusion sector.

Oxfordshire sits at the heart of this ambition, with around 500 companies linked to fusion activity across the Oxford‑Cambridge Growth Corridor.

The region is also home to the UK Atomic Energy Authority at Culham, which employs around 2,000 people, with a further 6,000 jobs supported across its supply chain.

PC Harper, from Wallingford, who servied in Abingdon, was fatally injured when he got caught in a strap attached to the back of a car and was dragged down a country road as the killers fled the scene of a quad bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in 2019.

Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers could be freed halfway through their 13-year sentences under Government plans for early releases designed to tackle overcrowding in jails, which has prompted widespread condemnation of the scheme.

Police officers and Debbie Adlam, the mother of PC Andrew Harper, paying their respects yesterday at the site near Sulhamstead, Berkshire, where the officer was killed (Image: Martis Media/PA Wire)

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The Government has resisted pressure to exempt the two men from the early release scheme, part of the Sentencing Act passed earlier this year which cut the minimum amount of time many offenders would have to spend in prison.

PC Harper’s mother Debbie Adlam, who earlier this week said the family was “bitterly disappointed” by the Government’s decision, visited the scene of her son’s death on Thursday.

Aileen O’Connor, chairwoman of Thames Valley Police Federation, who started the petition this week, said: “The public have spoken loudly and clearly that they are behind our campaign, which is absolutely amazing – and I just want to thank each and every one of the people who have taken the time to sign our petition.

PC Andrew Harper, who was killed in 2019 at the age of 28 (Image: NQ)

“We will continue to drive this. We will not stop. Please keep signing. Please keep sharing.

“My ask is that the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary and everybody else in Government gets on the right side of this and does the right thing and makes the changes that keep the two killers behind bars.”

On Friday afternoon the petition had more than 675,000 signatures.

Jessie Cole (Image: Thames Valley Police / NQ)

READ MORE: Mum jailed after teen girl beat up man, 50, hours before his death

Detective Superintendent Stuart Blaik, who led the investigation into 28-year-old PC Harper’s death, told the BBC he was “deeply concerned and appalled” by the prospect of early release for Cole and Bowers, and that they should “not be afforded the opportunity”.

He said: “Neither of them showed any remorse during their time in police custody or during their subsequent trial.

“I hope the Government takes account of the strength of public feeling on this issue, which has been both clear and widespread.”

Thames Valley Police Chief Constable Jason Hogg said he was receiving legal advice on whether the force could join a legal challenge mooted by Ms O’Connor to prevent Cole and Bowers being freed.

Albert Bowers (Image: Thames Valley Police / NQ)

The officer’s widow Lissie Harper said the Government “has punched us in the gut… they should be ashamed of themselves”.

“Hopefully we can make the current Government come to their senses and realise we cannot put people like this back on our streets,” she said.

“Justice should mean justice and serving the sentence given.”

READ MORE: Teenager attacked by ‘group of youths’ in Oxfordshire town

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said it was “not OK” that the killers of PC Harper were eligible for early release.

He told the BBC the Government should “never have been put in a position” where prisons were so full that offenders were going to be let out at an earlier stage of their sentence.

“We take this extremely seriously, not least in the light of the concerns raised by the family of PC Harper,” Mr Streeting said during a visit in Scotland on Friday.