The Heritage Lottery Fund is making available at least £1 million a year until 2019 to help local communities remember the centenary of the UK entering the First World War.

Stephen McPartland, Member of Parliament for Stevenage said, "I am delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund is making this money available to local communities and I would urge local groups to start applying for funding now. The impact of the First World War was felt in every community and the grants of £3,000 to £10,000 can be used towards projects which create a community archive or collection, research and identification of local heritage, or conserving and finding out more about war memorials.

"It is really important that local groups know the money is available and they can apply for it, which is why I recently invited the Heritage Lottery Fund and all the other members of the Lottery fund family to Knebworth Village Hall to explain how small community groups and charities can access funds for their projects.  We have been very lucky in obtaining lottery funding as an area but it normally goes into a small number of very large projects that often have no real positive impact on the wider community. I would like to see lots of smaller charity and community groups successfully bid for small amounts of funding that we know from experience will make a massive impact on the wider community."

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