Agenda item

Report attached.

Members considered a report of Councillor Peter Britcliffe, Deputy Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Resources, regardingrecommendations for grant awards from the 2023/24 Community Chest Fund.  Councillor Britcliffe spoke to the report and highlighted that some 88 applications had been received, totalling in excess of £300k, against a Community Chest budget of £88k.

The Chair apologised for the lateness of preparation of the report.  With the consent of the meeting, he approved an adjournment for 10 minutes to allow time for Members to read the information provided.

Following the adjournment, the Chair indicated that the recommendations would benefit a wide variety of people and organisations.  The task of selecting successful applicants had been very difficult   The Chair also explained the reason for the Working Group’s departure from the original selection criteria in the light of the applications received, some of which were communities of interest operating across ward boundaries.

Councillor Munsif Dad BEM JP declared a personal interest in this item, as an associate of one of the applicants in the Spring Hill ward.  He expressed disappointment that the revised selection criteria had resulted in only £2k being allocated directly to this ward.  He also enquired about whether projects would remain viable where the monies allocated did not match the full amount of the bid.  Councillor Smithson responded that advice would be provided signposting applicants to other sources of grant funding.  Some 52 organisations had been supported and others might have access to funding via the Leader’s Budget.

Councillor Noordad Aziz also raised the matter of the revised selection criteria and a disparity between the total allocations made directly to certain wards. However, the Chair and Councillor Smithson gave examples of several organisations in receipt of this funding which operated across those wards mentioned.

Councillor Dave Parkins was given permission to speak on this item and thanked the Chair for the proposed allocation for Huncoat Community Forum.

Councillors Mohammed Younis and Loraine Cox both spoke in support of the allocations proposed.

Approval of the report was not considered to be a key decision.

Reasons for Decision

At its meeting of the 21^st June 2023 Cabinet had resolved to create a Community Chest budget of £80,000.  At that time Cabinet had also set out its intention to allocate the fund on the basis of £5,000 for each of the Borough’s 16 wards.

Following this decision the application process had opened on the 1^st November and closed on the 15^th December 2023.  The Council had received 88 applications, with total bids in excess of £302,777.

Having received the applications, a Cabinet Working Group consisting of the Acting Leader of the Council and the joint Deputy Leader (Councillors Peter Britcliffe and Steven Smithson) was convened to evaluate the bids and make recommendations to Cabinet for determination. 

In light of the nature of the applications received, it was the view of this Working Group that the original intention to allocate the grant on the basis of £5,000 per ward was misguided.  The reason that this conclusion had been reached was that it was clear that for the most part the organisations that made applications did not run on “ward lines” and instead offered facilities and services to beneficiaries that were much more rooted in communities of interest.  Put simply, the types of organisations that had applied for funding – e.g. cricket and boxing clubs, drama clubs, the Hyndburn Green Spaces Forum, the Sea Cadets, Scout Groups etc. were open to residents from across the Borough and did not define themselves in terms of the Council’s electoral divisions.

A full schedule of the 52 recommended grant approvals was provided at Appendix A of the report.  For completeness the Appendix also listed the unsuccessful applications, although it should be noted that 7 of these organisations had either previously received support from the Leader’s Budget or were in the process of doing so.

Subject to approval of this report, it was expected that all organisations would be notified if their application had been successful or unsuccessful in early February.  It was anticipated that payments would be made from late February onwards, subject to the completion of grant agreements.

Alternative Options considered and Reasons for Rejection

It was open to the Cabinet to allocate the funding differently and accept/reject the recommendations as considered appropriate.

Resolved                                    -    That Cabinet:

(1)   Rescinds the decision made at its meeting of the 18^th October 2023 to allocate an equal amount of the Community Chest Fund to each of the Borough’s 16 wards.

(2)   Approves the proposed list of Community Chest Grants attached at Appendix A of the report.