Agenda and minutes

To note any substitution of Board Members made in accordance with Council Procedure Rules.

Councillor Pace substituted for Councillor Sarson.

To note any apologies.

Councillor Sarson sent his apologies for absence.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 6^th December 2023 (previously circulated).

The minutes of the meeting held on 6^th December 2023 were approved as a correct record.

There were no items of urgent business.

To note declarations of Members’ disclosable pecuniary interests, non-disclosable pecuniary interests and non-pecuniary interests in respect of items on the Agenda.

None.

To receive a presentation from the Assistant Director (Leisure, Community & Cultural Services).

The Board received a presentation from the Assistant Director (Leisure Community) on

• the Annual Grants 2023/24. All successful applicants had received their second and final grants.
• Small Start Up Grant applications had opened and will remain open until 12^th February 2024
• The Community Lottery went live in September 2023. There are currently 40 applications.

None.

The Board is asked to resolve:

That under Section 100(A)(2) and (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be now excluded from the meeting for Item 9 on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of confidential or exempt information as defined in Section 100(A)(3) and Paragraph 3 (private financial or business information) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the said Act (as amended).

In resolving to exclude the public in respect of the exempt information, it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

RESOLVED: That under Section 100(A)(2) and (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be now excluded from the meeting for agenda item 9 on the grounds that they involved the likely disclosure of confidential or exempt information as defined in Section 100A(3) and paragraph 3 (private financial or business information) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the said Act (as amended). In resolving to exclude the public in respect of the exempt information, it was considered that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

To receive a presentation from the Assistant Director (Leisure, Community & Cultural Services).

The Board received a presentation from the Assistant Director (Leisure Community) which provided an update on the details of the organisations which had received grants in 2023/24.

The presentation included positive feedback from one of the organisations which the grant had supported highlighting the positive work it had been able to complete since receiving the funds.

The Community Lottery

Forty good causes had been approved and live on the Community Lottery. Details were provided to the Board on ticket sales.

The operator income from ticket sales was shared with the members of the Board. Profits from the ticket sales would be brought back to Grants Board for decision on how this would be spent.

Details were shared on a complaint which had been received regarding the Grants Board and the work which had be done to resolve this and the governance requirements to be eligible for the lottery.

ACTION:

·       Where are free fabric Saturdays taking place

·       Break down of the percentages of those moving to paid and volunteer employment (Recovery)

·       To share slides on the “good causes” which had not sold any lottery tickets.

It was suggested that going forward applications that involve schools would have a signature from the school these would be running the project from to avoid the risk of these schemes not going ahead.

It was proposed that a site visit to the schemes that the Grants Board had supported. It was agreed that it would be more appropriate that schemes were invited to a future meeting to show their outcomes for 2023/24. Concern was raised that this may create a prejudice to certain organisations to receive additional funds.