Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor Clare Delderfield sent an apology for absence.

Cllr Jose Hales declared a non-pecuniary interest as a trustee of the Melbourn Mobile Warden Scheme.

Cllr Sue Ellington declared a non-pecuniary interest as trustee of the Swavesey Mobile Warden Scheme.

To authorise the Chair to sign the Minutes of the meeting held on Friday 30 October 2020 as a correct record.

The Grants Advisory Committee authorised the Chairman to sign, as a correct record, the minutes of the meeting held Friday 30 October 2020.

Two options were proposed to the Committee for how the underspend could be allocated.

It was remarked that option 2 provided a more sustainable approach, right through to 2024 as each scheme had a different pool of funding to draw from, but the covid-19 pandemic was affecting those pools of funding. The Grants Advisory Committee noted that designating a ‘top slice’ to help support any new schemes, would help to stabilise them and remove any financial concerns for the Parish Councils.

Members of the Committee queried what would happen in 2024 when this period ended. The Development Officer remarked that in 2022 when the first tranche of schemes have a year left on their funding, there would then need to be a conversation on how the funding would be addressed after the initial period.

The Grants Advisory Committee recommended to the Lead Member for Finance:

·       To top slice £40,000 from the £115,766 underspend to leave £75,766 to provide an additional £25,255.33 per year in addition to the £27,000 already budgeted over the period April 2021-March 2024.  This would result in a total budget for existing schemes (and any others wishing to set up) of £52,255.33/year.  Use the £40,000 to part-subsidise the 10 new schemes for the period October 2022 to March 2024 (18 months).

The Committee noted that there would be on-line workshops run for new Mobile Warden Schemes on how and where to apply for additional sources of grant funding to give support to new schemes. It was agreed that the Grants Advisory Committee would be notified of when these workshops would take place. It was noted that this would be towards the end of the initial funding cycle in April 2022.

The Development Officer remarked that some comms were going to be released regarding the new applications for Mobile Warden Schemes, with funding available from Monday 30 November 2020 and the aim that the new schemes would be operational by December 2020.

Friday 27 November 2020 at 10:00am.

Friday 27 November 2020 at 10:00am.