Decision details

The Cabinet will be asked to consider the recommendations of the Grant Working Party in respect of making changes to a few of its previously awarded Community Chest grants in 2020/21 and making some potential changes to the scheme in 2021/22. These proposed changes are largely to respond to the impacts of COVID-19.

RESOLVED:

That due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic:

Community Chest: 2020/2021

1.       In these exceptional circumstances, the £3,500 allocation of Community Chest funding in 2020/2021 to Our Special Friends now be used to pay core costs for one year only, as detailed in paragraphs 3.6 and 3.7 of Report No: CAB/WS/20/044;

2.       the following nine organisations that received Community Chest funding in 2020/2021, be given an extension to fulfil the outcomes and outputs of their projects which were committed to as part of the award for 2020/21, as set out in paragraphs 3.7 and 3.8:

a.       Bury Drop in

b.       Haverhill Community Trust

c.       The Befriending Scheme

d.       Second Chances Support Group

e.       Suffolk Mind

f.       Bury Theatre

g.       Turner Hall

h.       Newmarket Day Centre

i.        The Erskine Centre

3.       The ways in which some organisations have adapted their approach in response to COVID-19 in order to continue to offer a service be noted, as set out in section 4 of Report No: CAB/WS/20/044.

Community Chest: 2021/2022

4.       The amended timeframe for applicants and decision-making process, as set out in paragraph 5.2 of Report No: CAB/WS/20/044, be noted to allow applications to be submitted by a deadline of 30 October instead of the usual 30 September; and

5.       the proposed revised guidance for applicants to Community Chest in 2021/2022, as contained in Appendix A to Report No: CAB/WS/20/000, be approved for the reasons set out in paragraph 5.3.

Councillor Locality Budget Scheme: 2020/2021

6.       In these exceptional circumstances, the Council’s Councillor Locality Budget Guidance be amended to enable projects awarded funding in 2019/20 and the early part of 2020/2021 to be completed beyond the current deadline, which currently required funding to be spent within a 12-month period, as detailed in paragraph 6.1 of Report No: CAB/WS/20/044.