Agenda item

To consider the head of corporate strategy’s report. 

The committee considered the head of corporate strategy’s report on new homes bonus grants and capital grants.  The council had received seven applications for new homes bonus grants relating to the Wantage area, and five applications for capital grants.  

New Homes Bonus grant applications

Each new homes bonus grant application had been assessed against the new homes bonus grants criteria and scoring matrix.  The officer’s recommended scores were set out in the report.  The committee assessed the applications against the grants criteria and the officer’s recommended scores, and revised the scores where marked with an asterisk (*) in the table below. 

The committee noted that Sustainable Wantage had withdrawn the part of its application relating to heating and insulation of its premises until it had agreed a longer lease.  Its application was now for funds towards the cost of its centre manager. 

The committee noted that those new homes bonus applications scoring a total of 10 or more were in the high priority funding bracket and could be awarded a grant of 100 per cent of the requested amount.  Those applications scoring 9 or less fell in to the medium priority funding bracket and could be awarded a grant of up to 75 per cent of the requested amount.  The committee awarded the new homes bonus grants accordingly. 

Capital grant applications

The committee noted that Blewbury Parish Council had applied for grants for the same village hall refurbishment project under both the new homes bonus and capital grants schemes.  The reason for this was to increase its chances of being awarded a grant if the first application failed.  The parish council had been advised that it could only be awarded a grant from one of the council’s grant schemes for the same project.  As the parish council had been awarded a grant for its village hall refurbishment project under the new homes bonus grant scheme above, its application for a capital grant was automatically refused and not considered by the committee. 

Each capital grant application had been assessed against the capital grants criteria and scoring matrix.  The officer’s recommended scores were set out in the report.  The committee assessed the applications against the grants criteria and the officer’s recommended scores, and revised the scores where marked with an asterisk (*) in the table below:

The committee noted that those capital applications scoring a total of 9 or more were in the high priority funding bracket and could be awarded a grant of 100 per cent of the requested amount.  The committee awarded capital grants accordingly. 

Further grant applications in 2015/16

The committee noted that the last opportunity for organisations to submit grant applications in the current financial year had now passed.  As there had been only two applications for the Wantage area, the committee agreed that these could be determined under delegated authority rather than holding a further committee meeting. 

Grants policy and procedure

The committee was asked for its views on the current grant policies and procedures.  The committee thanked the officers for their work in improving the grants system but suggested the following changes:

·         the officer’s report should set out the budget available to the committee both for this round and the potential budget remaining for future rounds according to officer recommendation

·         where a minority group would benefit from a project, the maximum score should be awarded for community benefit

·         where a project had several different elements, the report should show a breakdown of costs for each element

·         the grants budgets should be awarded to area committees annually, rather than being re-apportioned after each round of grant applications

RESOLVED: to

(a)          award new homes bonus grants as follows:

(b)          award capital grants as follows:

(c)          refuse the capital grant application from Blewbury Parish Council towards its village hall refurbishment part 1 as it has been awarded a new homes bonus grant for this project;

(d)          authorise the head of corporate strategy, following consultation with the committee chairman, to determine grant applications received during the last round (from Letcombe Regis Riding Club a maximum of £10,000 and Wantage Silver Band, a maximum of £2,500) and to cancel the committee meeting scheduled for 7 March 2016; and

(e)       request the Cabinet member responsible for grants to consider the following changes to the grants system:

·         the officer’s report should set out the budget available to the committee both for this round and the potential budget remaining for future rounds according to officer recommendation

·         where a minority group would benefit from a project, the maximum score should be awarded for community benefit

·         where a project had several different elements, the report should show a breakdown of costs for each element

·         the grants budgets should be awarded to area committees annually, rather than being re-apportioned after each round of grant applications