Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report from the Community Funding & Voluntary Sector Manager regarding Community Grants.

Councillors were reminded that the Committee could not make decisions whilst the Area Committees were taking place virtually, but any discussion / debate would be taken into consideration by Officers when the delegated decisions were made.

In response to Members’ questions officers said the following:

i.               It was noted that a total of £76,254 of application requests were made for North Area Committee out of a fund of £23,751. Difficult decisions had to be made regarding the grant funding requests as unfortunately there was not enough funding available to fund all qualifying projects.

ii.             Histon Road Residents Association had withdrawn their grant application after the North Area Committee agenda had been published.

iii.            Reasons why applications were not proposed to be awarded area committee grant funding included:

a.    Significant funding had already been provided by the council through the main community grants fund.

b.    Poor or insufficient detail regarding benefit to residents in the north area of Cambridge; where appropriate officers would liaise with applicants where their application would be better made to the main community grants fund.

c.    Inclusion of inappropriate costs (e.g. equipment only requests).

d.    Financial need of applicant group not demonstrated or over reliance on Community Grants funding.

iv.           Recommended that organisations read through the guidance and talked with Grant Officers before applying.

v.             Officers would review the amount of detail included within the reports and would be happy to discuss any further detailed queries outside of the meeting.