Agenda, decisions and minutes

To elect a Chair of the Committee.

RESOLVED to appoint Councillor Lees as Chair.

RESOLVED to appoint Councillor Lees as Chair.

To receive apologies for absence and declarations of interest.

Councillor Lodge declared an interest in two grant applications through his wife’s employment at Volunteer Uttlesford and that he was a Trustee at Saffron Hall.  Pursuant to S33 Localities Act 2011 Councillor Lodge was granted a dispensation to speak and vote on matters to be considered at the meeting, conditional on him withdrawing from the meeting when the relevant grant applications were under consideration.

To consider the minutes of the previous meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed and signed as an accurate record.

To receive and consider the applications from voluntary organisations.

RESOLVED to allocate £330,000 to the various organisations as detailed in Appendix A and that this would only be a one year settlement.

Organisations were each given ten minutes to present their application with ten further minutes allocated for questions.

Robert Purcell, Natalie Trapmore and Karen Shepherd gave a presentation to support the grant application submitted by Accuro (Care Services). Points included:

• Any funding provided by the Council would be used to cover revenue funding for the operational and core costs of services delivered specifically in Uttlesford. Funding would be restricted to Accuro’s Uttlesford Clubs and would ensure financial sustainability.
• The organisation explained how they monitor and evaluate and how they had developed a toolkit, including flashcards, cool walls, smiley face surveys and giant foam thumbs.
• The organisation was working with the Mousetrap Theatre Projects and in Partnership with Citizens Advice in Uttlesford.

Gary Hyams and Paul Atkins gave a presentation to support the grant application submitted by Support 4 Sight.  Points included:

• The organisation had worked in Saffron Walden for 25 years. RNIB statistics show there are 3,070 people in Uttlesford with sight loss of which 410 are blind. Significant increases in these figures are expected across Uttlesford.
• The organisation’s funding had been reduced by £35,000 by Essex County Council and the NHS. This had necessitated some redundancies.  Any funding provided by the Council would enable Support 4 Sight to continue to operate from its current central location, provide on-going training to volunteers  and would look to launch a befriending service to socially isolated elderly people with sensory loss.
• The organisation had been nominated for the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

Laura Hyde gave a presentation to support the grant application submitted by Citizens Advice East Herts. Points included:

• The organisation provided a drop-in service to many Uttlesford residents at their Bishop’s Stortford office. Any funding provided by the Council would go towards the cost of operating the service in Bishop’s Stortford, including contributing towards the cost of volunteer advisers.
• The organisation received up to 2/3 of core income from local council funding but need to fundraise for a significant amount and intend to become more accessible and outward facing. They were looking to work in partnership with Uttlesford Citizens Advice.
• Funding currently provided by East Herts Council and this Council was in line with the client numbers ratio being assisted at the Bishop’s Stortford office.

• Demands on the service were higher, through an increasing number of members and with more moving into the over-80 age category.
• There were 853 individual Members and 83 group members. A door to door transport service and a hospital car service scheme is operated.
• The organisation aim to replace one vehicle each year. There were currently six buses in use. New buses were purchased outright and increased mileages made it imperative that the vehicle replacement programme continues and that Department of Transport  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.