Issue - meetings
To approve a new capital community grant scheme
Meeting: 01/06/2012 - Cabinet (Item 7)
7 Capital community grant scheme 
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To consider the head of corporate strategy’s report.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Cabinet considered the head of corporate strategy’s report that proposed a new capital community grants scheme.
Councillor Dudley Hoddinott was invited to ask his questions to Cabinet on the community grants scheme. He asked:
- when would the revenue grants scheme be available and open for review?
- how much money would be available for revenue projects that communities could apply for?
- was the re-establishment of a revenue grants scheme a ‘u-turn’?
In reply to Councillor Hoddinott’s questions, the officers reported that the revenue scheme would be considered by Cabinet on 15 June, and it had a £50,000 budget for 2012/13.
The report set out three options to apportion the capital grants budget for 2012/13:
· Option 1 - dividing the available budget by four (the number of area committees).
· Option 2 - allocating funds on a per councillor basis as each councillor had approximately the same number of electors, ensuring that the funds would be distributed evenly
· Option 3 - calculating the number of parishes x £525 and the number of electors x 60 pence in each area
Cabinet noted that the Scrutiny Committee had considered the same report on 24 May and had made suggestions. Cabinet considered these and responded as set out below:
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Scrutiny Committee’s suggestion |
Cabinet’s response |
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The council should provide examples of capital projects that might be successful under the new capital grants scheme as the public might not be aware of the difference between capital and revenue expenditure in local government terms
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Agree this proposal but there should also be examples of schemes that might be successful under the new revenue grants scheme |
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The council should inform applicants that there would be a separate revenue grants scheme at a later date
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Agreed – publish details of the schemes on the website |
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Applications should be allowed from charitable bodies and community interest companies
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Agreed |
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Area committees should consider the grant applications. (One Scrutiny Committee member had suggested an alternative to the area committees distributing grants funds, that councillors should each have an amount to spend on projects in their ward as they thought fit. However, this suggestion did not receive the committee’s support, as this would result in each councillor having a very small budget. The committee considered that it would be better to pool resources and determine grants collectively through area committees.)
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Agreed – area committees would continue to determine grant applications |
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Where area committees initiate their own schemes, these must be subject to a formal agreement for ownership, liability and future maintenance, for example, perhaps through the formal involvement of a third party
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Agreed |
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The scheme eligibility criteria needed clarification on the difference between items such as repairs, maintenance, and professional fees, which were not normally eligible for capital grants, and refurbishment, which might be
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Agreed – officers to clarify the criteria before publication |
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Each applicant should always obtain support of their parish or town council, and ideally an appropriate financial contribution
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Agreed but it must be the applicant’s responsibility to declare that ... view the full minutes text for item 7 |