Agenda item

To consider the Grant Allocation Policy (Sports Provision – Major Projects).

The Assistant Director – Housing, Health and Communities gave a summary of the report, which detailed the Grant Allocation Policy (Sports Provision – Major Projects) for approval and adoption.

Councillor Barker said that she would have expected the responsible Cabinet Member to have presented the item.

Various Members commented on the proposed Grant Allocation Policy that was due to be submitted to Cabinet on 9 February 2021. The main points were as follows:

·         The Committee believed the requirement for grants to be “fully spent within the year for which they are allocated” was unrealistic, given the likely size of some of these projects. If the intention was that recipients will be allowed to roll forward their grant into the following year, this did need to be explicitly stated in the policy.

·         The Policy stipulated that a recipient cannot have received a grant from the Council for the same project. Did this include grants given by Councillors under the Ward Member Initiative Grant scheme?

·         Could the same organisation apply in subsequent years or would there be restrictions on this – for example only every other year or once every three years? If there was to be a restriction on how frequently a club could apply, this needed to be stated in the policy.

·         Could a line be added to the policy stating that all grants are awarded by the Council “in good faith” to cover the Council for any unseen eventuality?

Some members of the committee expressed disquiet that they were being asked to recommend approval of the policy when it was clear that it had already been decided who was to receive the first grant. The point was made that the Council would be launching a grant scheme and could potentially have between 15 and 20 clubs making applications for it when it has already been decided who was to receive it. Members were concerned at the apparent lack of transparency.

The Director - Finance and Corporate Services said that the matter had been brought to the Committee for governance reasons in that any comments made would be forwarded onto Cabinet. He said that this was an opportunity for extra controls to be added in and said that a paper would be taken to Cabinet that presented views expressed by the Committee. He said that no decision was being taken relating to allocating and spending grant monies but that the decision from the Committee was in respect of procedures and policies.

The Assistant Director - Housing Health and Communities said that smaller grants would fall under different criteria. She said that the document could be considered to be a living document that could be periodically reviewed. She also confirmed that the policy in respect of terms and conditions would have input from legal officers.

The Chair said that he would take a paper forward to Cabinet that outlined the views of the Committee.

Councillor Barker said that she would be abstaining from voting on the recommendation on the basis that she considered that the grant recipient had already been agreed.

A roll call vote was taken that the Grant Allocation Policy (Sports Provision – Major Projects) be recommended to Cabinet for approval, together with a paper being taken to Cabinet outlining the Committee’s views on making improvements to the policy. 

RESOLVED that the Grant Allocation Policy (Sports Provision – Major Projects) be recommended to Cabinet for approval, together with a paper being taken to Cabinet outlining the Committee’s views on making improvements to the policy.