Councillors in Atherstone and district are being sent back to their political roots to play a determining role in an "electoral code" lottery handing out tens of thousands of pounds to projects of specific local importance.

North Warwickshire Borough Council is planning to establish a new £300,000 fund that targets schemes of "lasting benefit" to the community as one-off applications.

It will be the responsibility of council members to identify their suitability with a maximum allocation of £17,650 per ward.

The proposal will mean an extra £70,000 for the four electoral parishes in the Nub News patch – Atherstone North, Atherstone Central, Atherstone South and Mancetter plus Baddesley and Grendon.

A report to Monday's borough council Community and Environment Board sees the new fund as providing an "easily accessible source of financial support for a wide range of projects that seek to make a real and positive difference" to individual electoral areas.

It adds: "In this way, the fund will endeavour to benefit residents across the borough in a fair and equitable manner."

Projects should be for "one-off" capital or revenue undertakings that provide a clear and lasting benefit to the local community. Ones that require on-going funding will only be considered if there is a realistic plan of how they will be financed after the award of any initial contribution from the Community Fund.

In addition, approved schemes will receive support only once, and be eligible for one source of borough council funding.

The report goes on: "As the Community Fund is designed to address issues of local concern, it is unlikely that projects that seek to address borough-wide matters will be successful."

If a proposed project crosses a ward boundary, then a grant up to £10,000 may be deemed appropriate – but only if the councilors agree.

There will no monies for schemes with existing operational or running costs, ones promoting religious or political beliefs, organisations with significant "uncommitted financial reserves", or those with loan or debt repayments.

The report concluded: "The borough councillors will determine the level of funding to be allocated to each approved project, although the cumulative sum for each ward will not exceed £17,650."

Up until now the financial support for this type of funding has come in a "one-off" sum of £300,000 available for community projects across North Warwickshire – with £100,000 in the capital programme and £200,000 in the revenue budget.