Agenda and minutes

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests in any item on the agenda

No interests were declared.

In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos.11 and 35 a period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the meeting on any matter relevant to the work of the meeting. Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers. Members of the public are not required to give notice to use this facility. However, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours’ notice is encouraged.

Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide three clear working days’ notice, in writing, in order for an informed answer to be given.

There were no members of the public present.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 2^nd February 2010.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 2^nd February 2010 be approved as a correct record.

To agree a policy and procedures to enable Cheshire East Council to continue with its grants service for the next financial year.

The Cabinet Member for Performance and Capacity considered a report on the continuation of the Council’s grants policy for the next financial year.

The grants system would be fundamentally reviewed during 2010/2011 to ensure that the Council had an equitable system offering a balanced portfolio of grants.

Currently, the aim of the grants scheme was to support small scale community projects that would improve the quality of life for local communities. A policy had been adopted in August 2009 to guide grant allocation. Grants had been made by the former authorities towards the core costs of a number of voluntary organisations; during 2009/2010, these grants had been continued and budgets identified. In addition, payments had been made by the former Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council comprising grants to parish councils in the sum of £58,449 and ward budgets of £24,000.

The total identified grants budget was £773,975.

A large number of organisations had received funding over recent months which had enabled a wealth of community activity to take place. A similar demand for funding was anticipated for the coming year.

The strategic organisations funded made a significant contribution in helping the Council achieve its objectives for Cheshire East. A future grants scheme could make provision for such funding to be covered by SLAs and to be for a longer term than one year. However, whilst proposals for the longer term were being developed, it was essential that funding to these organisations remained at least at current levels. A number of other organisations depended on their grant funding for some of their core costs. If the Council decided to discontinue this funding it would be necessary to assess the implications and to give proper notice to the organisations concerned. Again, whilst comprehensive grants schemes and criteria were being drawn up, it would be inappropriate to do anything other than provide funding at current levels. All organisations would need to be advised that a review was underway and that they must not depend on funding for 2011/2012.

RESOLVED

That the Cabinet Member for Performance and Capacity agrees

(1)   to adopt the existing Policy for the Allocation of Community Grants for a further 12 months and allocate £63,000 to fund this;

(2)   to continue existing grants to the key strategic organisations funded in 2009/10. To enable the same level of grant aid to be provided, an allocation of £550,240 is required;

(3)   for 2010/2011, to fund those other voluntary organisations which received grants from the former authorities, provided budgets have been identified and transferred to Partnerships. The level of grant to remain at current levels and to enable this to happen, the remainder of the grants pot, ie. £160,735, be allocated for this purpose;

(4)   that all organisations receiving grant for 2010/11 be advised that they must not assume continuation to future years as the Council will be looking to allocate grants in future years linked to the 3 year Medium Term Financial Strategy;

(5)   that applications from any other organisations only be considered  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.