Agenda and draft minutes

None.

The grant officer will briefly introduce each application.

Members of the public may attend to address the committee for up to five minutes about any of the applications considered at item, provided they have registered with democratic services by noon on Wednesday 9 July.

Registered speakers from the same organisation will share the five minute slot.

Ward councillor can address the committee for up to five minutes about each application in their ward.

The panel heard addresses from representatives of the applicants and from ward councillors and answers to their questions as summarised below.

Chinnor Village Hall

Zena Barker, the hall bookings secretary, spoke in support of the project. She explained the benefits the proposal would give the hall, its users, and the village. She explained that the hall committee was employing a professional project manager and financial controller for the works, and their fees were included in the costs. The improved facilities would benefit the growing community of Chinnor.

Councillor Lynn Lloyd spoke in support of the project. She said that the new committee wished to redevelop the hall to improve the financial position and increase the usage by the village. Increased housing in the village was leading to increasing demand on facilities, and this project was developed in consultation with residents to meet the demand. Some S106 money was available for community facilities.

Thame Town Council – skate park

Corin Rea, Olly Ross, Harry King, from the skate park working group, spoke in support of the project. They explained that the existing skate park would have to close completely. Without it, current users would have no suitable facility. The new design was maintenance free with a long life-span. This was the only wheeled sports facility in the area and users came from a wide area. While there was not formal membership, it did help form a community, reduce anti-social behaviour, and encourage sporting and personal development.  There were no formal controls over the use of the skate park as it was open to the public, but there were signs recommending protective wear and warning of the risks. There were no formal arrangements about using the facilities with the adjacent football and rugby clubs, but both were willing to allow occasional use of toilets and parking, and these could be discussed. There were plans to involve young people in the construction and to provide training, demonstrations and some classes. Funding would come through grants and the working group’s own fundraising, and the town council as the applicant would manage this.

Councillor Mike Welply spoke in support of the project. He said this was a much needed facility providing a managed risky sport for youngsters to enjoy, and sat alongside improved facilities of the other sports clubs.

Wallingford Sports Trust

John Atkins and Richard Knight, from the sports trust committee, spoke in support of the project. They explained how the new changing rooms would benefit the 1500 members of the 7 resident clubs and the casual and community users of the trust’s facilities. The current changing rooms need refurbishing and improving to meet modern standards and separate toilets and disabled and baby changing would improve facilities for those using the community spaces. The need for the scheme had been identified through consultation and while this was an ambitious project, the funds could be raised.

Councillor Marcus Harris spoke in support of the project. He said that the sports trust managed the only  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

Purpose: to propose a minimum score below which no award will be made.

The panel agreed that the minimum score for full funding of the larger capital grants should be slightly lower than those for smaller grants to reflect the intrinsic community benefit and the complex size and nature of the projects put forward for consideration.

The panel agreed to set the minimum score for the award of a grant from the Communities Capital Grant over £15,000 scheme at:

·         110 points and above – 100% of the sum requested

·         90 points to 109 points – 80% of the sum requested

·         Below 90 points – no award. 

Purpose: To consider the applications for funding from the Communities Capital Grants and to make recommendations to the Cabinet Member for grants on the allocation of the funds to each application.

The panel considered the applications for funding from the over £15,000 Community Capital Grants Scheme, taking into account the reports of the grants officer on each application, the presentations from the registered public speakers and ward councillors, and the visits to each site carried out on 3 July 2014.

The panel commented that the applications before them were of a very high standard.

Using the criteria set out in the scheme and taking into account the grant officer’s provisional scores, the panel awarded scores for each application. After discussion the panel agreed the majority of the provisional scores but to amend those listed below:

Chinnor village hall:

award 20 points for broadening the range as the project would allow  the hall to host a substantially larger range of activities and number of users.

Thameskate park:

award 20 points for community benefit as the skate park provided very substantial benefits for the section of the community it served;

award 20 points for meeting local need as this was the only means of meeting the needs of participants in wheeled sports.

Thomley Activity Centre:

award 20 points for community benefit and 20 points for meeting a local need as the centre and the new facilities provided unique and much-needed services to a very disadvantaged group;

award 20 points for broadening the range as this would provide a good multi-purpose space, increase the number of core users of the centre, improve their experience, allow the centre to provide different activities directly and indirectly related to the café, and encourage non-core user groups to hire the centre.

Chinnor Rugby Football Club:

decrease the project viability score to 15 because a lack of complete clarity of the financial position raised concerns whether the overall package of funding would be in place and would be sufficient for the project to proceed.

The final scores as agreed were:

The panel recommended that as all schemes scored above 110 points, all should receive the full amount requested as shown:

Purpose: to recommend to the Cabinet member for grants an amount to allocate to the under £15,000 small grants budget for 2014-15.

The panel recommended that the Cabinet member for grants:

·         allocate the remaining £654,070 to the under £15,000 capital grants scheme; and

·         recommend Cabinet and Council to add any underspend in the grants budget in 2014/15 to the full planned allocation in 2015/16, so that the funds were retained in their entirety for community grants.

The panel recommended that Cabinet consider raising the maximum award under the scheme to £150,000 to reflect increases in costs.