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Decision Maker: Executive Councillor for Communities.
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Is Key decision?: Yes
Is subject to call in?: No
Approve grant funding for voluntary and community groups for 2015-16.
Matter for
Decision
The report detailed the implementation process undertaken for the new
Community Grants fund and made recommendations of awards, for voluntary and
community organisations, under the new scheme, for 2015-16.
Decision
of Executive Councillor for Community, Arts and Recreation
The Executive
Councillor resolved to agree:
i.
The grants to voluntary and community organisations
for 2015-16, as set out in Appendix 1 of the officer’s report, subject to the
budget approval in February 2015 and any further satisfactory information
required of applicant organisations.
ii.
The Area Committee grants budget as set out in
paragraph 8.1 of the Officer’s report, subject to the budget approval in
February 2015.
iii.
To establish a Transition Fund of £75,000, from
2014-15 unallocated funding, to support voluntary and community organisations
through the first year of the implementation of the new priorities and outcomes
as detailed in Section 6, and as allocated in Appendix 1, of the Officer’s
report.
iv.
That officers reviewed the
Discretionary Rate Relief contributions from this fund, in discussion with the
Business Rates service, and bring a report back to this committee in March
2015, as detailed in paragraph 6.1 of the Officer’s report.
Reason for the Decision
As set out in the Officer’s report.
Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected
Not applicable.
Scrutiny
Considerations
The Committee received a report from the Community Funding and Development Manager. The Executive Councillor for Communities,
Arts and Recreation, Councillor Johnson, welcomed the comprehensive and
targeted approach taken to achieve the desired outcomes while meeting the
required savings.
The Committee made the following comments in response to the report:
i.
Requested future analyses of the effectiveness of
the grants.
ii.
Suggested that it was unclear from the report how
the grants that had been awarded aligned with the priorities. However, it
appeared that the Arts had suffered disproportionate cuts.
In response to Members’ questions the Community Funding and Development Manager said the following:
iii.
She appreciated that Members were unable to compare
this year’s grants with the previous year, but stated that including figure for
previous years would have been misleading as they were not like for like.
However, officers had considered those factors when making their
recommendations.
iv.
Stated that applications that met the new criteria
were allocated funding.
v.
Said that it had not been possible to split
applications into priority headings. However, she assured members that there
had been a reasonable coverage across the priorities. In addition, some
proposals met more than one priority.
vi.
Confirmed that grant recipients would be subject to
future evaluation and monitoring. However this would be proportionate to the
size of the organisation and the grant received.
The Committee resolved unanimously to endorse the recommendation.
The Executive Councillor approved the recommendations.
Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any
Dispensations Granted)
No conflicts of interest
were declared by the Executive Councillor.
Publication date: 10/02/2015
Date of decision: 15/01/2015