SCHOOLS and social groups in the borough have benefitted from a round of grants totalling nearly £8,000.

The Four Lanes Trust gave out a total of £7,856 to ten Basingstoke organisations that focus on the arts, education or community action, at its last meeting of 2012.

The biggest grant was £1,500, which went to the Winklebury Schools Federation to buy picnic tables for the schools’ grounds.

Other recipients included Central Studio, in Cliddesden Road, which received £958.55 to fund repairs to its stage, and the Basingstoke Astronomical Society, which received £440 for new telescopes to use with schools and community groups.

Fairfields Primary School, in Council Road, got £750 for a portable toilet at the school allotment, and St John’s Primary School, in Kingsmill Road, Cranbourne, got £630 for a textile project.

The trust meets three times a year to decide which organisations could receive the money, which comes from interest on money that is banked in unit trusts.

It was set up in 1974 by philanthropist Christopher Makins, who was the eldest son of Lord Sherfield, a landowner who lived at Sherfield Park, near Chineham.

Any group wishing to apply to the trust for a grant should contact director Bob Carr on 01256 477990 or email bobcarr@fourlt.fsnet.co.uk.