Agenda and minutes

No substitutions were declared.  

It was proposed, seconded and

RESOLVED:

That Councillor Angela Rushen be elected Chairman of the Grant Working Party for 2015/2016.

No apologies for absence were received.

Councillor Rushen took the opportunity to welcome new Members of the Working Party to their first meeting.

It was proposed, seconded and

RESOLVED:

That Councillor Jim Thorndyke be elected Vice-Chairman of the Grant Working Party for 2015/2016.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 13 March 2015 (copy attached).

The minutes of the meeting held on 13 March 2015 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Projects supported so far for this financial year 2015 / 2016 are as follows:

·         Kedington Parish Council - £6,166.67

          Improvements to Community Centre

·         Horringer cum Ixworth Community Council - £7,809.00

          Energy Efficiency Improvements

·         Stanton Bowls Club - £3,350.00

          New Bowls Floor 

The scheme is a rolling programme with a remaining budget of £38,018.33 of unallocated funds.

The Working Party is asked to NOTE the above update on the Rural Initiatives Grant Scheme.

The Working Party received and noted a narrative item which provided an update on the Rural Initiatives Grant Scheme (RIGS).

Members noted the projects supported so far in 2015/2016 and the amount of grant funding allocated to them, as outlined in the narrative item.  The total amount of unallocated RIGS funding remaining in 2015/2016 was £38,018.33.

A discussion was held on ways to positively show that the Borough Council had granted RIGS funding to organisations and whether more could be done by the recipients to effectively publicise the Council’s contribution.  It was agreed that the Leader would be asked to highlight the projects which had received RIGS funding to date in 2015/2016 in his opening statement at the Parish Conference on 12 October 2015, together with requests being made of the organisations that received funding in the future to formally acknowledge the Council’s contribution in an appropriate way.

Attention was then drawn to Report No: PAS/SE/15/026, ‘Delivering a Sustainable Budget 2015/2016’, which was due to be considered by the Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee on 23 September 2015.  The report provided detailed background information to a proposal, which culminated in a recommendation that the current Rural Action Plan underspend of circa £90,000 should be allocated in full to the RIGS fund to allow the scheme to continue for the four year period 2016-2020, by allocating an equal sum in each of those years, taking into account an underspend from the current year’s budget 2015/2016. The fund would then cease from April 2020. It was envisaged that Community Infrastructure Levy would be in place by then acting as the funding stream direct to town and parish councils for such projects.

If accepted by the Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee, its recommendation would be presented to Cabinet and Council on 20 October and 17 November 2015 respectively.

The Working Party was extremely pleased to note this proposal and if resolved by Council, it should be publicised to parish and town councils accordingly.

(Councillor Robert Everitt arrived during the consideration of this item.)

Report No: GWP/SE/15/003

Members are invited to individually score the Community Chest applications prior to the meeting which may aid discussion.

The Working Party considered Report No: GWP/SE/15/003, which sought approval for a number of applications submitted for Community Chest funding in the 2015/2016 transitional year.  The recommendations of the Grant Working Party would be considered by Cabinet on 20 October 2015 for final approval.

The Community Chest fund had only been established this year, therefore funding for existing Service Level Agreements (SLAs) totalling £199,770 had moved into the Community Chest.  All previous agreements had been honoured and these would finish at the end of March 2016.  As such the remaining Community Chest funds available for the 2015/2016 transitional phase amounted to £56,850. 

The following five applications totalling £44,728.50 were considered in turn:

Appendix 1:                    Home Start – application for £5,000;

Appendix 2:          Suffolk Accident and Rescue Service (SARS) – application for £1,500;

Appendix 3:                    Unit Twenty Three – application for £5,000;

Appendix 4:          Catch 22, Suffolk Positive Futures – application for £8,902.50; and

Appendix 5:          Suffolk West Citizens Advice Bureau – application for £24,326.

Each appendix provided further details of the application to assist the Working Party in their discussion.  Each application was required to be evaluated in accordance with the eligibility and selection criteria set out in Appendix 6.

Home-Start

The Working Party fully supported this application with the majority of Members recognising the significant role this organisation played in supporting families to help themselves. The application was considered to meet the eligibility and selection criteria extremely well.

All agreed that the full amount of £5,000 should be granted.

Suffolk Accident and Rescue Service (SARS)

The Working Party considered that despite not quite meeting all of the eligibility criteria, the application should be fully supported as the service was considered to be extremely beneficial to those in urgent, critical need. 

All agreed that the full amount of £1,500 should be granted.

Unit Twenty Three

Concern was expressed with this application with anomalies identified and clarification needing to be sought on a number of issues.  Members considered the application lacked direction and focus, and may not be the most effective  means of targeting young carers. Whilst it was acknowledged that young carers needed support, the Working Party felt that an application for practical support would be considered more favourably than this submission.

All agreed that the application for £5,000 should not be granted.

Catch 22, Suffolk Positive Futures

Some concern was expressed regarding the quality of the application, which appeared to contain anomalies, contradictions and lacked factual information.  Members recognised the general substance of the work of this organisation, however the majority of Members required further detailed information to make an informed decision.

Councillor Margaret Marks fully supported the application and had particularly observed the benefits this organisation had made to young people in Haverhill. 

As the majority of Members remained unable to make a decision on the application given the information provided, the following was agreed, that:

(a)     Catch 22, Suffolk Positive Futures, should be asked to supply a summary of what was currently being delivered together with an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

Members are requested to NOTE that the next meeting of the Working Party will be held on Monday 16 November 2015 at 5pm in GFR-13.

The Working Party noted that the next meeting had been arranged for Monday 16 November 2015 at 5pm in GFR13.