Agenda item

To consider the call-in of the Cabinet’s decisions relating to the revenue grants scheme, taken on 15 June 2012.  Councillors Jim Halliday, Andrew Crawford, Tony de Vere and Julie Mayhew-Archer have called in the decision as they believe that that they do not comply with the principles set out in Article 13 of the Constitution.  The call-in is made on the grounds set out in the appendix (page 30).  Also appended are the report to Cabinet (page 31), and the draft minute from that meeting (page 35). 

Options open to the Scrutiny Committee:

1. to refer the decision back to the Cabinet for reconsideration, setting out its concerns.

2. to not refer the decision back to the Cabinet for reconsideration.  The decision shall then take effect from the date of this meeting of the Scrutiny Committee. 

The committee considered the call-in of the Cabinet’s decision relating to the revised revenue grant policy, taken on 15 June 2012. Councillors Jim Halliday, Andrew Crawford, Julie Mayhew-Archer and Tony de Vere called in the decision as they did not believe that it complied with the principles set out in Article 13 of the constitution. The committee considered the report to Cabinet, the criteria for the revenue grant scheme 2012-13, and an extract from the draft Cabinet minutes from 15 June 2012.

The cabinet member for corporate strategy, Councillor Matthew Barber was present to answer questions and assist in the discussion of this item.

The committee discussed the points raised in the call-in request as follows:

a)    The call-in notice questioned why parish and town councils and charitable bodies were not allowed to apply for funds. In response, the cabinet member explained that parish and town councils could raise their own revenue funds through the parish precepts. Charitable bodies are permitted to apply for funds.

b)    The call-in notice expressed concern that by requiring two years’ previous accounts to be submitted, this excluded the possibility of funding new events or granting funds to newly established bodies. The cabinet member agreed that the word “normally” should be added so that new organisations with less than two years’ accounts would be able to apply for funds and where other criteria are met.

c)    The cabinet member was asked why there was a £1000 limit, when the grants made to festivals in Wantage, Faringdon and Abingdon in 2011 all exceeded that amount. The cabinet member believed that a higher limit would set expectations for applicants. He agreed that the word “normally” would be added to allow for exceptions.

d)    There were concerns about the lack of accountability as organisations do not have to provide evidence of expenditure. The cabinet member believed that this needed to be balanced against the potential probability and impact of any risk and the desire not to introduce unnecessary bureaucracy. The draft scheme had been approved by the council’s accountants.

e)    Although there were concerns that there was no requirement for a project’s financial plan to be submitted with the application, Councillor Matthew Barber considered that there was enough information requested in terms of a project’s income and expenditure, two years’ accounts and three months’ bank statements. As above there was an issue of balance between risk and bureaucracy.

f)      “Common sense” should be used to define what constitutes a “local festival or event”.

Further discussions included the following points:

• Applications would be circulated in the Vale Information Sheet (VIS) prior to agreement.
• Local members would be consulted on applications in their areas.
• Ad hoc conditions could be added, where appropriate, for larger sums.

RESOLVED to:

a)    Request the cabinet member for corporate strategy to consider revising the revenue grant scheme, in line with the above conditions (a to f) and circulate the revised scheme to members of Scrutiny Committee prior to publishing, for informal feedback and

b)    Agree that, rather than referring to this matter back to Cabinet, the decision can be taken by the cabinet member for corporate strategy and be subject to call-in.

Councillor Melinda Tilley left the meeting.