Agenda item

REPORT OF THE POLICY AND COMMUNITY MANAGER

To advise the Committee on the current expenditure and balances of the Committee Grant budgets

To bring to the Committee’s attention details of recent requests received for Committee grant funding, made by community groups and local organisations, including:

·         Offley Parish Council

·         Kimpton Primary School

·         Breachwood Green Charity Group (CIO)

To advise the Committee of the activities and schemes with which the Community Engagement officers have been involved in

To bring to the Committee’s attention some important community-based activities that will take place during the next few months

RESOLVED: That the Committee be recommended to endorse actions taken by the Community Engagement team to promote greater community capacity and well-being for Southern Rural.

REASON FOR DECISION:

(1)   To ensure the Members are kept informed of the work of the Community Engagement Team

(2)   This report intended to inform Members of the financial resources available. It draws attention to the current budgetary situation by assisting in the effective financial management of the budgets. This ensures that all actions are performed in line with the Authority’s Financial Regulations, the Council’s Constitution, and the guidance of the existing Grants policy as agreed by Cabinet in January 2020.

(3)   The awarding of financial assistance to voluntary organisations and the use of discretionary spending allows the Committee to further the aims of the Council Plan.

Audio recording – 11:55

The Chair invited Aimee Flack, Community Engagement Officer, to update Members on the budget

·         The 2022/23 base budget was £8700 with £222 carried forward from 2021/22 budget

·         £1780 was granted at the last Committee meeting so this leaves an available budget of £7142.

·         The grant applications from this meeting total £2316 an if the Members agree all the grants outlined in this report it would leave a balance of £4826

Following this information, the Members then voted on the grant applications.

Aimee Flack presented the report entitled Grants & Community Update and gave a verbal presentation, which included:

·         We had our first online parish forum meeting on Monday. This is an opportunity for local Parish Councils to meet online and discuss issues and projects they are working on

·         We had 4 parishes that were represented and thanks to Councillor Claire Strong for attending

·         Christine Adams was also invited. She is the rural engagement officer at Citizens Advice North Herts to introduce her role and what they can offer. She is very keen to meet everyone in the rural area to see how they can support

·         Topics that came up were the cost-of-living crisis and what benefits were out there, as well as the North Herts Council ‘Easing the Squeeze’ campaign.

·         We received positive feedback from the meeting

·         The next one will likely be in Springtime as we are planning to do them twice a year. These details will be shared closer to the time

·         Earlier this week we presented a webinar for Ukrainian guests and their hosts.

·         In the report it says it was the 14^th September, but the date was changed to the 27^th.

·         The webinar will be made available on YouTube

·         We highlighted activities and initiatives available such as the North Herts Ukraine support page.

·         We also highlighted the coffee mornings in Hitchin town hall and North Herts museum. This is available to all refugees and is next being held on the 26^th October. It provides an opportunity to speak to local groups and ask for advice with things such as English lessons or career advice

·         We have also been processing grants to utilise the health protection board funding. Some of the funding was awarded to Citizen Advice North Herts, who received £19,327 towards a post-covid rural outreach project which is funding the rural engagement officer role and it was Christine who attended the parish forum meeting.

·         To celebrate local democracy week, we have been contacting local primary schools to coordinate visits from local Councillors. We have had a couple of schools in the Southern Rural area who are interested and thank you to those who are helping with this.

·         Since writing the report there are a couple of updates of grant applications.

·         From the last meeting in June, we awarded funding to Holwell Parish Council to tables, chairs, cooker and a fridge freezer for their new pavilion. The building is almost ready and they are finishing the painting and tiling in the changing rooms and once this is done they will be purchasing the tables and chairs and so on

·         From last year, the Kimpton Cricket Club who were awarded £2500 in June 2021 towards the purchase of a cricket mower. Simon Thompson, the Chair of Kimpton Cricket Club expressed his gratitude for the committee’s generosity. This piece of kit was a key element in their development plan and has allowed them to maintain and improve the quality of the playing experience. Other elements of the development wouldn’t have been possible without this grant has been the promotion and hosting of the ECB All-Stars and Dynamos programmes for cricketers aged 5-8 and 8-11 respectively as well as the extension beyond friendly Sunday cricket into the Herts League cricket. In their first competitive junior match the under 10s had fun and won against local rivals in Hatfield. Also the senior team managed to finish top in division 12 of the North Herts Saracens league and promotion up to division 10 for the next season.

Councillor Claire Strong shared that she hasn’t received great feedback as doing things during the day doesn’t always suit people. As a Council we used to run a rural conference covering multiple topics which started late afternoon and ran into the evening and had high attendance. Also the presentation that was done on the CAB had a lot of information within it and this would’ve been good to bring to the Southern Rural committee because Councillors to know what is available and can take the messages back to the communities. Councillor Strong suggested that we should look at the possibility of doing this within Southern Rural.

Councillor Strong also highlighted an error within the spreadsheet as Holwell Parish Council seemed to have been duplicated

In response to questions from Councillor Strong, Aimee Flack advised:

·         All the Parish Council’s in Southern Rural area were invited

·         There were Parish Councils invited from other rural areas outside Southern Rural and one expressed interest

·         We will continue to promote this

·         We wanted to get a sense of what topics they might want to discuss within the meetings but is happy to adapt from feedback

Councillor George Davies supported the idea that the parish forum has the opportunity to include all the Parish Council’s, not just those within Southern Rural.

Councillor George Davies proposed, and Councillor Mandi Tandi seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED: That the Committee be recommended to endorse actions taken by the Community Engagement team to promote greater community capacity and well-being for Southern Rural.

REASON FOR DECISION:

(1)  To ensure the Members are kept informed of the work of the Community Engagement Team

(2)  This report intended to inform Members of the financial resources available. It draws attention to the current budgetary situation by assisting in the effective financial management of the budgets. This ensures that all actions are performed in line with the Authority’s Financial Regulations, the Council’s Constitution, and the guidance of the existing Grants policy as agreed by Cabinet in January 2020.

(3)  The awarding of financial assistance to voluntary organisations and the use of discretionary spending allows the Committee to further the aims of the Council Plan.