Every single penny paid via candidates for their votes goes to local Cuckfield good causes. Running costs of the Independent State itself are raised from sale of Passports, and souvenir stamps as well as the Wheel of Wine at the Cuckoo Fayre.
A full list of the year’s beneficiaries is published each February in the Post Offices, Queen’s Hall and the Cuckfield pubs.
Some of the groups and organisations to which money has been distributed include:
- Local schools and places of residence including Holy Trinity, Warden Park, Court Meadow, play groups and nurseries for the very young, Orchard House, Tendercroft
- Youth organisations such as Cuckfield Youth Clubs, Cuckfield Scouts, Cubs & Beavers, Cuckfield Brownies & Guides, Cuckfield Cosmos, Burgess Hill Marching Youth
- For our older residents, the annual Christmas Lunch & Party, Cuckoo Choir, Silver Threads
- New England Wood Nature Reserve
- Health and Medical organisations: Gillian Fabb Fund, St Catherine’s Hospice, St Peter & St James Hospice, Leukemia Research, Alzheimer’s Society, the former Cuckfield Hospital and its replacement the Princess Royal Hospital
- Holy Trinity and Baptist churches
- Local organisations which include the Royal British Legion, Riding for the Disabled, Cuckfield Museum, Ansty Village Hall Trust
- Local societies such as the Cuckfield Society, Cuckfield European Association, Cuckfield Dramatic Society, Inner Wheel Club of Cuckfield & Lindfield, Rotary Club of Cuckfield & Lindfield
- Local projects throughout Cuckfield which include the Town’s Charter now hanging in the Old School, refurbishment of Cottage Homes, the Millennium Map in the High Street, the landscaping of the garden behind the Queen’s Hall, the Tablet book for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and in years past, repairs to the paddling pool in the Recreation Ground
- Sponsorship of local young people in their pursuit of various activities which include the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, participation in Operation Raleigh, world travel while performing charity work, and sporting events up to national and international standard