Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Abbey House, Abingdon

Contact: Steven Corrigan, Democratic Services Manager, tel. 01235 547675, e-mail:  steven.corrigan@southandvale.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

1.

Election of a Chair(man)

To elect a Chair(man) for the municipal year

Minutes:

RESOLVED: To elect Councillor Julie Mayhew-Archer as chair of the Abingdon Area Committee for the remainder of the municipal year. 

2.

Apologies for absence

To receive apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Councillors Marilyn Badcock, Mike Badcock, Tony de Vere, and Aidan Melville had sent their apologies for absence.  

3.

Minutes

To adopt and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 6th April 2011 (previously circulated). 

Minutes:

The committee asked for the minutes of the meeting held on 6 April 2011 to be circulated before the next meeting. 

4.

Declarations of interest

To receive any declarations of personal or personal and prejudicial interests in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting. 

 

Minutes:

Councillors declared the following interests:

 

Item

Councillor(s)

Nature of interest

Reason

Ab.30 – Community grants 

Jason Fiddaman, Peter Jones, Angela Lawrence, Pat Lonergan, and Sandy Lovatt

Personal

They were members of Abingdon Town Council that had awarded grants to some of the applicants approaching this committee for grants.  However, they had not taken part in the town council’s decision-making. 

Ab.30 – Community grants

Jim Halliday

Personal

He knew some of the members of Abbey Brass and Assisted Reading for Children in Oxfordshire

Ab.30 – Community grants

Julie Mayhew-Archer

Personal

She knew some of the members of Abbey Brass

Ab.30 – Community grants

Peter Jones

Personal

He was a member of Oxfordshire County Council and was involved in its Big Society and Localities programmes. 

 

5.

Urgent business and chairman's announcements

To receive notification of any matters, which the chairman determines, should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances, which have made the matters urgent, and to receive any announcements from the chairman.

Minutes:

None

6.

Statements, petitions and questions from the public relating to matters affecting the Abingdon Area Committee.

Any statements, petitions and questions from the public under standing order 32 will be made or presented at the meeting.

Minutes:

None

7.

Community Grants pdf icon PDF 92 KB

To consider report 43/11 of the head of corporate strategy

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The committee considered report 43/11 of the head of community strategy.  This set out details of three applications for community grants.  The committee noted that it had £3,733 remaining in its community grants budget for 2011/12. 

 

The committee carefully considered each application against the council’s community grants criteria and noted the officer’s assessment of each application. 

 

The committee noted that the evaluation criteria had changed, with the officers using a new points scoring method to achieve better consistency in assessing grants applications.  The committee questioned whether this change would have affected the applicants that had had their applications considered by the committee on 6 April 2011 and asked the officers to investigate. 

 

In considering the applications set out in the report, the committee asked for further information but decided to award grants in each case to avoid delaying the community projects.  However, the committee asked the officers in future to help applicants fill in the application form, investigate what the applicant intended to use their reserves for, and add to the grants criteria to encourage applicants to apply for a grant from their town or parish council.  The committee also asked the officers to publicise these grant awards. 

 

The committee also noted that the Constitution Advisory Group would be reviewing the council’s constitution.  One suggestion put forward was to increase the delegation to area committees.  Councillors were advised to feed any suggestions to the Constitution Advisory Group. 

 

RESOLVED: To approve the following community grant applications:

 

Applicant

Project

Grant

Abingdon Rowing Club

To purchase a junior rowing boat

£2,000

Abbey Brass

To provide additional instruments for the learner group

£400

Assisted Reading for Children in Oxfordshire

Book box sponsorship

£640

 

Exempt information under section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972

None

 

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Vale of White Horse District Council
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Abingdon
OX14 3JE