Issue - meetings

Report of the Leader

RESOLVED that

1. The list of projects to be funded from community pride funds as set out in appendix 1 be approved.
   
   
2. Authority be delegated to the Policy and Partnerships Manager in consultation with the Leader to determine the allocation of any under spends from the allocated funds.

The Leader introduced the report. As part of the 2011-12 budget, the council agreed to set aside £30,000 for the community pride scheme with the aspiration that the funding be used to enable “big society” initiatives such as promoting volunteering or voluntary initiatives.

A panel comprising the Leader of the Council, Cllr. Anne Regan, Angela Gilbert from Gloucestershire Association for Voluntary and Community Action, Andrew Sherbourne Principal Accounting Technician and Richard Gibson, Policy and Partnerships Manager met on Wednesday 6^th July to evaluate the 35 applications and make recommendations to Cabinet. He thanked the panel for their work.

As the scheme had been oversubscribed, the panel had to apply the criteria quite strictly to what were all worthy bids. Referring to the results set out in appendix 1, he indicated that the bid from Cheltenham Connect had been rejected by the panel. Although the council was supportive of the work of the organisation, the bid did not meet the criteria because of a lack of clarity over the area to be targeted at this time.

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services referred to the bid from Oakley Residents Association for improvements to the road blocks in Humber and Mersey Roads. The road blocks had been put in to address the boy racer problem and although successful in that aim, they unsightly for local people and gave the impression that it was a problem neighbourhood.  With the introduction of the environmental improvements scheme from the New Homes Bonus, it may be more appropriate for the residents to apply to this scheme for funding. This would then free up funding for Cheltenham Connect. Cheltenham Connect had attended a recent meeting of the neighbourhood partnership and had generated a lot of interest in their work and excitement that it could potentially be replicated in the Oakley ward.

The Leader  proposed that Cabinet should delegate authority to officers in consultation with himself to determine the allocation of any underspends from the allocated funds.

Other Cabinet members welcomed the funding which would be an asset to local communities and hoped that the funding could continue in future years.  Although a relatively small amount of money, it funded a range of schemes, promoted diversity and enabled these local initiatives to lever in funding from other sources. 

RESOLVED that

1. The list of projects to be funded from community pride funds as set out in appendix 1 be approved.
   
   
2. Authority be delegated to the Policy and Partnerships Manager in consultation with the Leader to determine the allocation of any under spends from the allocated funds.